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HOME AS FOUND.

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BY j. FENIMORE' COOPER

'Thou art perfect."

Pr. Hen.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

NEW EDITION

NEW YORK:
STRINGER AND TOWNSEND

1852.

___

Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1938, by

J. FENNIMORE COOPER,

in the clerk's office of the district court of the United States,
lit and for the eastern district of Pennsylvania.

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PREFACE.

THOSE who have done us the favour to read ' HOME
WARD BOUND' will at once perceive that the incidents
of this book commence at the point where those of the
work just mentioned ceased. We are fully awaxe
of the disadvantage of dividing the interest of a tale
in this manner ; but in the present instance, the separa
tion has been produced by circumstances over which
the writer had very little control. As any one who may
happen to take up this volume will very soon discover
that there is other matter which it is necessary to know,
it may be as well to tell all such persons, in the com
mencement, therefore, that their reading will be boot
less, unless they have leisure to turn to the pages
of Homeward Bound for their cue.

We remember the despair with which that admira
ble observer of men, Mr. Mathews the comedian, con
fessed the hopelessness of success, in his endeavours to
obtain a sufficiency of prominent and distinctive fea
tures Jo compose an entertainment founded on Ameri
can character. The whole nation struck him as being:

o

destitute of salient points, and as characterized by a
respectable mediocrity, that, however useful it might be
in its way, was utterly without poetry, humour, or
interest to the observer. For one who dealt principally
with the more conspicuous absurdities of his fellow-
creatures, Mr. Mathews was certainly right ; we also

o r— in

IV PREFACE.

believe him to have been right in the main, in the
general tenor of his opinion ; for this country, in its ordi
nary aspects, probably presents as barren a field to the
writer of fiction, and to the dramatist, as any other on
earth ; we are not certain that we might not say the
most barren. We believe that no attempt to delineate
ordinary American life, either on the stage, or in the
pages of a novel, has been rewarded with success. Even
those works in which the desire to illustrate a principle
has been the aim, when the picture has been brought
within this homely frame, have had to contend with
disadvantages that have been commonly found insur
mountable. The latter being the intention of this
book, the task has been undertaken with a perfect
consciousness of all its difficulties, and with scarcely a
hope of success. It would be indeed a desperate un
dertaking, to think of making anything interesting
in the way of a Roman de Socittv in this country;
still useful glances may possibly be made even in
that direction, and we trust that the fidelity of one
or two of our portraits will be recognized by the
looker-on, although they will very likely be denied by
the sitters themselves.

There seems to be a pervading principle in things,
which gives an accumulating energy to any active pro
perty that may happen to be in the ascendant, at the
time being. — Money produces money ; knowledge is the
parent of knowledge ; and ignorance fortifies ignorance.
— In a word, like begets like. The governing social
evil of America is provincialism ; a misfortune that is
perhaps inseparable from her situation. Without a
social capital, with twenty or more communities divided
by distance and political barriers, her people, who are

PREFACE. V

really more homogenous than any other of the same
numbers in the world perhaps, possess no standard for
opinion, manners, social maxims, or even language.
Every man, as a matter of course, refers to his own
particular experience, and praises or condemns agree
ably to notions contracted in the circle of his own ha
bits, however narrow, provincial, or erroneous they may
happen to be. As a consequence, no useful stage can
exist ; for the dramatist who should endeavour to deli
neate the faults of society, would find a formidable
party arrayed against him, in a moment, with no party
to defend. As another consequence, we see individuals
constantly assailed with a wolf-like ferocity, while so
ciety is everywhere permitted to pass unscathed.

That the American nation is a great nation, in some
particulars the greatest the world ever saw, we hold to
be true, and are as ready to maintain as any one can
be ; but we are also equally ready to concede, that it
is very far behind most polished nations in various essen
tials, and chiefly, that it is lamentably in arrears to its
own avowed principles. Perhaps this truth will be
found to be the predominant thought, throughout the
pages of " Home As Found."

HOME AS FOUND.

CHAPTER I.

" Good morrow, coz.

" Good morrow, sweet Hero."

SHAKSPEARR

WHEN Mr. Effingham determined to return home,
he sent ordeis to his agent to prepare his town-house
in New-York for his reception, intending to pass a
month or two in it, then to repair to Washington for a
few weeks, at the close of its season, and to visit his
country residence when the spring should fairly open.
Accordingly, Eve now found herself at the head
of one of the largest establishments, in the largest
American town, within an hour after she had landed
from the ship. Fortunately for her, however, her father
was too just to consider a wife, or a daughter, a mere
upper servant, and he rightly judged that a liberal por
tion of his income should be assigned to the procuring
of that higher quality of domestic service, which can
alone relieve the mistress of a household from a burthen
so heavy to be borne. Unlike so many of those around
him, who would spend on a single pretending and com
fortless entertainment, in which the ostentatious folly
pf one contended with the ostentatious folly of another,
a sum that, properly directed, would introduce order
and system into a family for a twelvemonth, by com
manding the time and knowledge of those whose study
they had been, and who would be willing to devote
themselves to such objects, and then permit their wives

(7)

HOME AS FOUND.

and daughters to return to the drudgery to which the
sex seeiTic doomed in this country, he first bethought
bi-n of the wants of social life before he aspired to its
parade. A man of the world, Mr. Effingham pos
sessed the requisite knowledge, and a man of justice,
the requisite fairness, to permit those who depended on
him so much for their happiness, to share equitably in
the good things that Providence had so liberally be
stowed on himself. In other words, he made two peo-
Ele comfortable, by paying a generous price for a
ousekeeper; his daughter, in the first place, by re
leasing her from cares that, necessarily, formed no
more a part of her duties than it would be a part of
her duty to sweep the pavement before the door ; and,
in the next place, a very respectable woman who was
glad to obtain so good a home on so easy terms. To
this simple and just expedient, Eve was indebted for
being at the head of one of the quietest, most truly
elegant, and best ordered establishments in America,
with no other demands on her time than that which
was necessary to issue a few orders in the morning,
and to examine a few accounts once a week.

One of the first and the most acceptable of the visits
that Eve received, was from her cousin, Grace Van
Cortlandt, who was in the country at the moment of
her arrival, but who hurried back to town to meet her
old school-fellow and kinswoman, the instant she heard
of her having landed. Eve Effingham and Grace Van
Cortlandt were sisters' children, and had been born
within a month of each other. As the latter was with
out father or mother, most of their time had been passed
together, until the former was taken abroad, when a
separation unavoidably ensued. Mr. Effingham ar
dently desired, and had actually designed, to take his
niece with him to Europe, but her paternal grandfather,
who was still living, objected his years and affection,
and the scheme was reluctantly abandoned. This
grandfather was now dead, and Grace had been left,

HOME AS FOUND.

with a very ample fortune, almost entirely the mistress
of her own movements.

The moment of the meeting between these two
warm-hearted and sincerely attached young women,
was one of great interest and anxiety to bolh. They
retained for each other the tenderest love, though the
years that had separated them had given rise to so
many new impressions and habits that they did not pre
pare themselves for the interview without apprehension.
This interview took place about a week after Eve was
established in Hudson Square, and at an hour earlier
than \vas usual for the reception of visits. Hearing a.
carriage stop before the door, and the bell ring, our
heroine stole a glance from behind a curtain and re
cognized her cousin as she alighted.

"Qu'avez-vous, machere?" demanded Mademoiselle
Viefville, observing that her eleve trembled and grew
pale.

" It is my cousin, Miss Van Cortlandt — she whom
I loved as a sister — we now meet for the first time in
so many years !"

" Bien — c'est une ires jolie jeune personne /" returned
the governess, taking a glance from the spot Eve had
just quitted. " Sur le rapport de la personne, ma c/iere,
vous devriez etre contente, au moins."

"If you will excuse me, Mademoiselle, I will go down
alone — I think I should prefer to meet Grace without
witnesses in the first interview."

" Tres volontiers. Elle est parente, et c'est Men na-
turel"

Eve, on this expressed approbation, met her maid at
the door, as she came to announce that Mademoiselle
de Cortlandt was in the library, and descended slowly
to meet her. The library was lighted from above by
means of a small dome, and Grace had unconsciously
placed herself in the very position that a painter would
have chosen, had she been about to sit for her por
trait. A strong, full, rich light fell obliquely on her

10 HOME AS FOUND*

is Eve entered, displaying her fine person and beau-
ami features to the very best advantage, and they were
features and a person that are not seen every day,
even in a country where female beauty is so common.
She was in a carriage dress, and her toilette was rather
more elaborate than Eve had been accustomed to see,
at that hour, but still Eve thought she had seldom seen
a more lovely young creature. Some such thoughts,
also, passed through the mind of Grace herself, who,
though struck, with a woman's readiness in such mat
ters, with the severe simplicity of Eve's attire, as well
as with its entire elegance, was more struck with the
charms of her countenance and figure. There was.
in truth, a strong resemblance between them, though
each was distinguished by an expression suited to her
character, and to the habits of her mind.

"Miss Effingham!" said Grace, advancing a step to
meet the lady who entered, while her voice was scarce
ly audible and her limbs trembled.

" Miss Van Cortlandt !" said Eve, in the same low,
smothered tone.

This formality caused a chill in both, and each un
consciously stopped and curtsied. Eve had been so
much struck with the coldness of the American man
ner, during the week she had been at home, and Grace
was so sensitive on the subject of the opinion of one
who had seen so much of Europe, that there was great
danger, at that critical moment, the meeting would ter
minate unpropitiously.

Thus far, however, all had been rigidly decorous,
though the strong feelings that were glowing in the
bosoms of both, had been so completely suppressed.
But the smile, cold and embarrassed as it was, that
each gave as she curtsied, had the sweet character of
her childhood in it, and recalled to both the girlish and
affectionate intercourse of their younger days.

"Grace!" said Eve, eagerly, advancing a step or
two impetuously, and blushing like the dawn.

HOME AS FOUND. 11

« Eve !"

Each opened her arms, and in a moment they were
locked in a long and fervent embrace. This was the
commencement of their former intimacy, and before
night Grace was domesticated in her uncle's house. It
is true that Miss Effingham perceived certain peculiari-
iies about Miss Van Cortlandt, that she had rather
were absent ; and Miss Van Cortlandt would have felt
more at her ease, had Miss Effingham a little less
reserve of manner, on certain subjects that the latter
had been taught to think interdicted. Notwithstanding
these slight separating shades in character, however,
the natural affection was warm and sincere ; and if Eve,
according to Grace's notions, was a little stately and
formal, she was polished and courteous, and if Grace,
according to Eve's notions, was a little too easy and
unreserved, she was feminine and delicate.

We pass over the three or four days that succeeded,
during which Eve had got to understand something of
her new position, and we will come at once to a con
versation between the cousins, that will serve to let the
reader more intimately into the opinions, habits and
feelings of both, as well as to open the real subject of
our narrative. This conversation took place in that
very library which had witnessed their first interview,
soon after breakfast, and while the young ladies were
still alone.

" I suppose, Eve, you will have to visit the Green's.
•—They are Hajjis, and were much in society last win
ter."

" Hajjis ! — You surely do not mean, Grace, that they
have been to Mecca?""

" Not at all : only to Paris, my dear ; that makes
a Hajji in New-York."

" And does it entitle the pilgrim to wear the green
turban 1" asked Eve, laughing.

" To wear any thing, Miss Effingham ; green, blue,
or yellow, and to cause it to pass for elegance."

12 HOME AS FOUND.

" And which is the favourite colour with the family
you haFe mentioned?"

" It o.-u^ht to be the first, in compliment to the name,
but, if truth must be said, I think they betray an affec
tion for all, with not a few of the half-tints in addition."

" I am afraid the}- are too prononcees for us, by this
description. I am no great admirer, Grace, of walk
ing rainbows."

" Too Green, you would have said, had you dared ;
but you are a Hajji too, and even the Greens know
that a Hajji never puns, unless, indeed, it might be one
from Philadelphia. But you will visit these people ?"

" Certainly, if they are in society and render it ne
cessary by their own civilities."

" They are in society, in virtue of their rights as
Hajjis ; but, as they passed three months at Paris, you
probably know something of them."

" They may not have been there at the same time
with ourselves," returned Eve, quietly, " and Paris is a
very large town. Hundreds of people come and go,
that one never hears of. I do not remember those you
have mentioned."

" I wish you may escape them, for, in my untravel-
led judgment, they are anything but agreeable, not
withstanding all they have seen, or pretend to have
seen."

" It is very possible to have been all over christen-
dom, and to remain exceedingly disagreeable ; besides
one may see a great deal, and yet see very little of a
good quality."

A pause of two or three minutes followed, during
which Eve read a note, and her cousin played with the
leaves of a book.

" I wish I knew your real opinion of us, Eve," the
last suddenly exclaimed. " Why not be frank with so
near a relative ; tell me honestly, now — are you recon
ciled to your country ?"

" You are the eleventh person who has asked me

HOME AS FOUND. 13

this question, which I find very extraordinary, as 1
have never quarrelled with my country."

" Nay, I do not mean exactly that. I wish to hear
how our society has struck one who has been educated
abroad."

" You wish, then, for opinions that can have no great
value, since my experience at home, extends only to a
fortnight. But you have many books on the country,
and some written by very clever persons ; why not
consult them ?"

" Oh ! you mean the travellers. None of them are
worth a second thought, and we hold them, one and
all, in great contempt."

" Of that I can have no manner of doubt, as one
and all, you are constantly protesting it, in the high
ways and bye-ways. There is no more certain sign
of contempt, than to be incessantly dwelling on its
intensity !"

Grace had great quickness, as well as her cousin,
and though provoked at Eve's quiet hit, she had the
good sense and the good nature to laugh.

" Perhaps we do protest and disdain a little too stre
nuously for good taste, if not to gain believers ; but
surely, Eve, you do not support these travellers in all
that they have written of us ?"

" Not in half, I can assure you. My father and cou
sin Jack have discussed them too often in my presence
to leave me in ignorance of the very many political
blunders they have made in particular."

" Political blunders ! — I know nothing of them, and
had rather thought them right, in most of what they
said about our politics. But, surely, neither your father
nor Mr. John Effingham corroborates what they say
of our society !"

" I cannot answer for either, on that point."

" Speak then for yourself. Do you think them right ?"

" You should remember, Grace, that I have not yet
leen any society in New- York."

VOL. I. 2

14 HOME AS FOUND.

" No society, dear ! — Why you were at the Hender
son's, and tiie Morgan's, and the Drewett's ; three of
the greatest reunions that we have had in two win
ters !"

" I did not know that you meant those unpleasant
crowds, by society."

" Unpleasant crowds ! Why, child, that is society,
is it not?"

" Not what I have been taught to consider such ; I
rather think it would be better to call it company."

" And is not this what is called society in Paris ?"

" As far from it as possible ; it may be an excres
cence of society ; one of its forms ; but, by no means,
society itself. It would be as true to call cards, which
are sometimes introduced in the world, society, as to
call a ball given in two small and crowded rooms,
society. They are merely two of the modes in which
idlers endeavour to vary their amusements."

" But we have little else than these balls, the morn
ing visits, and an occasional evening, in which there is
no dancing."

" I am sorry to hear it ; for, in that case, you can
have no society."

"And is it different at Paris — or Florence, or
Rome ?"

" Very. In Paris there are many houses open every
evening to which one can go, with little ceremony.
Our sex appears in them, dressed according to what a
gentleman I overheard conversing at Mrs. Henderson's
would call their " ulterior intentions," for the night ;
some attired in the simplest manner, others dressed for
concerts, for the opera, for court even ; some on the
way from a dinner, and others going to a late ball,
All this matter of course variety, adds to the ease and
grace of the company, and coupled with perfect good
manners, a certain knowledge of passing events, pretty
modes of expression, an accurate and even utterance,
the women usually find the means of making them

HOME AS FOUND. 15

selves agreeable. Their sentiment is sometimes a little
heroic, but this one must overlook, and it is a taste,
moreover, fhat is falling into disuse, as people read bet
ter books."

" And you prefer this heartlessness, Eve, to the
nature of your own country !"

" I do not know that quiet, retenue and a good tone,
are a whit more heartless than flirting, giggling and
childishness. There may be more nature in the latter,
certainly, but it is scarcely as agreeable, after one has
fairly got rid of the nursery."

Grace looked vexed, but she loved her cousin too
sincerely to be angry. A secret suspicion that Eve
was right, too, came in aid of her affection, and while
her little foot moved, she maintained her good-nature,
a task not always attainable for those who believe that
their own " superlatives" scarcely reach to other peo
ple's " positives." At this critical moment, when there
was so much danger of a jar in the feelings of these
two young females, the library door opened and Pierre,
Mr. Effingham's own man, announced

" Monsieur Bragg."

"Monsieur who?" asked Eve, in surprise.

" Monsieur Bragg," returned Pierre, in French,
" desires to see Mademoiselle."

" You mean my father, — I know no such person."

" He inquired first for Monsieur, but understanding
Monsieur was out, he next asked to have the honour
of seeing Mademoiselle."

" Is it what they call a person in England, Pierre ?"

Old Pierre smiled, as he answered

" He has the air, Mademoiselle, though he esteems
himself a personnage, if I might take the liberty of
judging."

" Ask him for his card, — there must oe a mistake, I
think."

While this short conversation took place, Grace Van
Cortlandt was sketcnmg a cottage with a pen, without

10 HOME AS POUND.

attending to a word that was said. But, when Eve
received the card from Pierre and read aloud, with the
tone of surprise that the name would be apt to excite
in a novice in the art of American nomenclature, the
words " Aristabulus Bragg," her cousin began to laugh.

" Who can this possibly be, Grace 1 — Did you ever
hear of such a person, and what right can he have to
wish to see me ?"

" Admit him, by all means ; it is your father's land
agent, and he may wish to leave some message for my
uncle. You will be obliged to make his acquaintance,
sooner or later, and it may as well be done now as at
another time."

" You have shown this gentleman into the front draw
ing-room, Pierre ?"

" Oui, Mademoiselle."

" I will ring when you are wanted."

Pierre withdrew, and Eve opened her secretary, out
of which she took a small manuscript book, over the
leaves of which she passed her fingers rapidly.

" Here it is," she said, smiling, " Mr. Aristabulus
Bragg, Attorney and Counsellor at Law, and the agent
of the Templeton estate." This precious little work,
you must understand, Grace, contains sketches of the
characters of such persons as I shall be the most likely
to see, by John Effingham, A. M. It is a sealed volume,
of course, but there can be no harm in reading the part
that treats of our present visiter, and, with your per
mission, we will have it in common. — « Mr. Aristabulus
Bragg was born in one of the western counties of Mas
sachusetts, and emigrated to New- York, after receiv
ing his education, at the mature age of nineteen ; at
twenty-one he was admitted to the bar, and for the last
seven years he has been a successful practitioner in all
the courts of Otsego, from the justice's to the circuit,
His talents are undeniable, as he commenced his edu.
cation at fourteen and terminated it at twenty-one, the
aw-course included. This man is an epitome of all

AS FOUXD. 17

that is good and all that is bad, in a very large class
of his fellow citizens. He is quick-witted, prompt in
action, enterprising in all tilings in which he has no
thing to lose, but wary and cautious in all things in
which he has a real stake, and ready to turn not only
his hand, but his heart and his principles to any thing
tha offers an advantage. With him, literally, "no
thing is too high to be aspired to, nothing too low to
be done." He will run for Governor, or for town-
clerk, just as opportunities occur, is expert in all the
practices of his profession, has had a quarter's danc
ing, with three years in the classics, and turned his
attention towards medicine and divinity, before he
finally settled down into the law. Such a compound
of shrewdness, impudence, common-sense, pretension,
humility, cleverness, vulgarity, kind-heartedness, dupli
city, selfishness, law-honesty, moral fraud and mother
wit, mixed up with a smattering of learning and much
penetration in practical things, can hardly be described,
as any one of his prominent qualities is certain to be
met by another quite as obvious that is almost its con
verse. Mr. Bragg, in short, is purely a creature of
circumstances, his qualities pointing him out for either
a member of congress or a deputy sheriff, offices that
he is equally ready to fill. I have employed him to
watch over the estate of your father, in the absence
of the latter, on the principle that one practised in
tricks is the best qualified to detect and expose them,
and with the certainty that no man will trespass with
impunity, so long as the courts continue to tax bills of
costs with their present liberality/ You appear to
know the gentleman, Grace ; is this character of him
faithful?"

" I know nothing of bills of costs and deputy she-
ritFs, but I do know that Mr. Aristabulus Bragg is an
amusing mixture of strut, humility, roguery and clev
erness. He is waiting all this time in the drawing-
room, and you had better see him, as he may, now, be
2*

18 HOME AS FOUND.

almost considered part of the family. You know he
has been living in the house at Templeton, ever since
he was installed by Mr. John Effingham. It was there
I had the honour first to meet him,"

"First! — Surely you have never seen him any
where else !"

" Your pardon, my dear. He never comes to town
without honouring me with a call. This is the price I
pay for having had the honour of being an inmate of
the same house with him for a week."

Eve rang the bell, and Pierre made his appear
ance.

" Desire Mr. Bragg to walk into the library."

Grace looked demure while Pierre was gone to ushei
in their visiter, and Eve was thinking of the medley
of qualities John Effingham had assembled in his de
scription, as the door opened, and the subject of her
contemplation entered.

" Monsieur Aristabule" said Pierre, eyeing the card,
but sticking at the first name.

Mr. Aristabulus Bragg was advancing with an easy
assurance to make his bow to the ladies, when the
more finished air and quiet dignity of Miss Effingham,
who was standing, so far disconcerted him, as com
pletely to upset his self-possession. As Grace had
expressed it, in consequence of having lived three
years in the old residence at Templeton, he had begun
to consider himself a part of the family, and at home
he never spoke of the young lady without calling her
" Eve," or " Eve Effingham." But he found it a very
different thing to affect familiarity among his associates,
and to practise it in the very face of its subject ; and,
although seldom at a loss for words of some sort or
another, he was now actually dumb-founded. Eve
relieved his awkwardness by directing Pierre, with her
eye, to hand a chair, and first speaking.

" I regret that my father is not in," she said, by way
of turning the visit from herself; " but he is to be ex«

HOME AS FOUIVD. 19

pected every moment. Are you lately from Temple-
ton?"

Aristabulus drew his breath, and recovered enough
of his ordinary tone of manner" to reply with a decent
regard to his character for self-command. The inti
macy that he had intended to establish on the spot, was
temporarily defeated, it is true, and without his exactly
knowing how it had been effected; for it was merely
the steadiness of the young lady, blended as it was with
a polished reserve, that had thrown him to a distance
he could net explain. He felt immediately, and with
tnste that did his sagacity credit, that his footing in
this quarter was only to be obtained by unusually slow
and cautious means. Still, Mr. Bragg was a man of
great decision, and, in his way, of very far-sighted
views; and, singular as it may seem, at that unpropi-
tious moment, he mentally determined that, at no very
distant day, he would make Miss Eve Effingham his
wife.

" I hope Mr. Effingham enjoys good health," he said,
with some such caution as a rebuked school-girl enters
on the recitation of her task — " he enjoyed bad health
I hear, (Mr. Aristabulus Bragg, though so shrewd, was
far from critical in his modes of speech) when he went
to Europe, and after travelling so far in such bad com
pany, it would be no more than fair that he should
have a little respite as he approaches home and old
age."

Had Eve been told that the man who uttered this
nice sentiment, and that too in accents as uncouth and
provincial as the thought was finished and lucid, actu
ally presumed to think of her as his bosom companion,
it is not easy to say which would have predominated
in her mind, mirth or resentment. But Mr. Bragg was
not in the habit of letting his secrets escape him pre
maturely, and certainly this was one that none but a
wizard could have discovered without the aid of a di
rect oral or written communication.

20 HOME AS FOUND.

" Are you lately from Templeton ?" repeated Eve,
a little surprised that the gentleman did not see fit to
answer the question, which was the only one that, as
it seemed to her, could have a common interest with
them both.

" I left home the day before yesterday," Aristabulus
now deigned to reply.

" It is so long since I saw our beautiful mountains,
and I was then so young, that I feel a great impatience
to revisit them, though the pleasure must be deferred
until spring."

" I conclude they are the handsomest mountains in
the known world, Miss Effingham !"

" That is much more than I shall venture to claim
for them ; but, according to my imperfect recollection,
and, what I esteem of far more importance, according
to the united testimony of Mr. John Effingham and my
father, I think they must be very beautiful."

Aristabulus looked up, as if he had a facetious thing
to say, and he even ventured on a smile, while he made
his answer.

" I hope Mr. John Effingham has prepared you for
a great change in the house ?"

" We know that it has been repaired and altered
under his directions. That was done at my father's
request."

"We consider it denationalized, Miss Effingham,
there being nothing like it, west of Albany at least."

" I should be sorry to find that my cousin has sub
jected us to this imputation," said Eve smiling — per
haps a little equivocally ; " the architecture of America
being generally so simple and pure. Mr. Effingham
laughs at his own improvements, however, in which,
he says, he has only carried out the plans of the ori
ginal artiste, who worked very much in what was
called the composite order."

" You allude to Mr. Hiram Doolittle, a gentleman I
never saw ; though I hear he foas left behind him many

HOME AS FOUND. 21

traces of his progress in the newer states. Ex pede,
Herculem, as we say, in the classics, Miss Effingham.
I believe it is the general sentiment that Mr. Doolittle's
designs have been improved on, though most people
think that the Grecian or Roman architecture, which
is so much in use in America, would be more repub
lican. But every body knows that Mr. John Effing-
ham is not much of a republican."

Eve did not choose to discuss her kinsman's opinions
with Mr. Aristabulus Bragg, and she quietly remarked
that she " did not know that the imitations of the an
cient architecture, of which there are so many in the
country, were owing to 'attachment to republicanism."

" To what else can it be owing, Miss Eve?"

"Sure enough," said Grace Tan Cortlandt ; "it is
unsuited to the materials, the climate, and the uses ;
and some very powerful motive, like that mentioned
by Mr. Bragg, could alone overcome these obstacles."

Aristabulus started from his seat, and making sun
dry apologies, declared his previous unconsciousness
that Miss Van Cortlandt was present ; all of which
was true enough, as he had been so much occupied
mentally, with her cousin, as not to have observed her,
seated as she was partly behind a screen. Grace re
ceived the excuses favourably, and the conversation
was resumed.

" I am sorry that my cousin should offend the taste
of the country," said Eve, " but as we are to live in
the house, the punishment will fall heaviest on the
offenders."

" Do not mistake me, Miss Eve," returned Aristabu
lus, in a little alarm, for he too well understood the
influence and wealth of John Effingham, not to wish
to be on good terms with him; "do not mistake me,
/ admire the house, and know it to be a perfect speci
men of a pure architecture in its way, but then public
opinion is not yet quite up to it. / see all its beauties,
J would wish you to know, but then there are many,

22 HOME AS FOUND.

a majority perhaps, who do not, and these persons
think they ought to be consulted about such matters."

" I believe Mr. John Effingham thinks less of his
own work than you seem to think of it yourself, sir,
for I have frequently heard him laugh at it, as a mere
enlargement of the merits of the composite order. He
calls it a caprice, rather than a taste : nor do I see
what concern a majority, as you term them, can have
with a house that does not belong to them,"

Aristabulus \vas surprised that any one could disre
gard a majority ; for, in this respect, he a good deal re
sembled Mr. Dodge, though running a different career ;
and the look of surprise he gave was natural and open.

" I do not mean that the public has a legal right to
control the tastes of the citizen," he said, " but in a
republican government, you undoubtedly understand,
Miss Eve, it will rule in all things."

" I can understand that one would wish to see his
neighbour use good taste, as it helps to embellish a
country ; but the man who should consult the whole
neighbourhood before he built, would be very apt to
cause a complicated house to be erected, if he paid
much respect to the different opinions he received ;
or, \vhat is quite as likely, apt to have no house at
all."

" I think you are mistaken, Miss Effingham, for the
public sentiment, just now, runs almost exclusively
and popularly into the Grecian school. We build
little besides temples for our churches, our banks, our
taverns, our court-houses, and our dwellings. A friend
of mine has just built a brewery on the model of the
Temple of the Winds."

" Had it been a mill, one might understand the con
ceit," said Eve, who now began to perceive that her
visiter had some latent humour, though he produced it
in a manner to induce one to think him any thing but
a droll. " The mountains must be doubly beautiful, if
they are decorated in the way you mention. I sin-

HOME AS FOUND. 23

cerely hope, Grace, that I shall find the hills as plea
sant as they now exist in my recollection !"

" Should they not prove to be quite as lovely as you
imagine, Miss Effingham," returned Aristabulus, who
saw no impropriety in answering a remark made to
Miss Van Cortlandt, or any one else, '"I hope you
will have the kindness to conceal the fact from the
world."

" I am afraid that would exceed my power, the dis
appointment would be so strong. May I ask why you
show so much interest in my keeping so cruel a mor
tification to myself?'

" Why, Miss Eve," said Aristabulus, looking grave,
" I am afraid that our people would hardly bear the
expression of such an opinion from you."

" From me ! — and why not from me, in particular ?"

" Perhaps it is because they think you have travel
led, and have seen other countries."

" And is it only those who have not travelled, and
who have no means of knowing the value of what
they say, that are privileged to criticise ?"

" I cannot exactly explain my own meaning, per
haps, but I think Miss Grace will understand me. Do
you not agree with me, Miss Van Cortlandt, in think
ing it would be safer for one who never saw any
other mountains to complain of the tameness and
monotony of our own, than for one who had passed a
whole life among the Andes and the Alps ?"

Eve smiled, for she saw that Mr. Bragg was capa
ble of detecting and laughing at provincial pride, even
while he was so much under its influence ; and Grace
coloured, for she had the consciousness of having
already betrayed some of this very silly sensitiveness,
in her intercourse with her cousin, in connexion with
other subjects. A reply was unnecessary, however,
as the door just then opened, and John Effingham
made his appearance. The meeting between the two
gentlemen, for we suppose Aristabulus must be in-

24 HOME AS FOUND.

eluded in the category by courtesy, if not of right,
was more cordial than Eve had expected to witness,
for each really entertained a respect for the other, in
reference to a merit of a particular sort ; Mr. Bragg
esteeming Mr. John Effingham as a wealthy and
caustic cynic, and Mr. John Effingham regarding Mr.
Bragg much as the owner of a dwelling regards a
valuable house-dog. After a few moments of conver
sation, the two withdrew together, and just as the
ladies were about to descend to the drawing-room,
previously to dinner, Pierre announced that a plate
had been ordered for the land agent.

CHAPTER II.

"I know that Deformed; he has been a vile thief this seven year
he goes up and down like a gentleman."

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

EVE, and her cousin, found Sir George Templemore
and Captain Truck in the drawing-room, the former
having lingered in New-York, with a desire to be near
his friends, and the latter being on the point of sailing
for Europe, in his regular turn. To these must be
added Mr. Bragg and the ordinary inmates of the
house, when the reader will" get a view of the whole
party.

Aristabulus had never before sat down to as brilliant
a table, and for the first time in his life, he saw candles
lighted at a dinner : but he was not a man to be dis
concerted at a novelty. Had he been a European of
the same origin and habits, awkwardness would have
betrayed him fifty times, before the dessert made its
appearance ; but, being the man he was, one who over
looked a certain prurient politeness that rather illus-

HOME AS FOUND. 25

irated his deportment, might very well have permitted
him to pass among the oi polloi of the world, were it
not for a peculiar management in the way of providing
for himself. It is true, he asked every one near him
to eat of every thing he could himself reach, and that
he used his knife as a coal-heaver uses a shovel ; but
the company he was in, though fastidious in its own
deportment, was altogether above the silver-forkisms,
and this portion of his demeanour, if it did not escape
undetected, passed away unnoticed. Not so, however,
with the peculiarity already mentioned as an excep
tion. This touch of deportment, (or management, per
haps, is the better word,) being characteristic of the
man, it deserves to be mentioned a little in detail.

The service at Mr. Effingham's table was made in
the quiet, but thorough manner that distinguishes a
French dinner. Every dish was removed, carved by
the domestics, and handed in turn to each guest. But
there were a delay and a finish in this arrangement
that suited neither Aristabulus's go-a-head-ism, nor his
organ of acquisitiveness. Instead of waiting, there
fore, for the more graduated movements of the domes
tics, he began to take care of himself, an office that
he performed with a certain dexterity that he had
acquired by frequenting ordinaries — a school, by the
\vay, in which he had obtained most of his notions of
the proprieties of the table. One or two slices were
obtained in the usual manner, or by means of the
regular service ; and, then, like one who had laid the
foundation of a fortune, by some lucky windfall in the
commencement of his career, he began to make
accessions, right and left, as opportunity offered.
Sundry entremets, or light dishes that had a peculiarly
tempting appearance, came first under his grasp. Of
these he soon accumulated all within his reach, by
taxing his neighbours, when he ventured to send his
plate, here and there, or wherever he saw a dish that
promised to reward his trouble. By such means,

VOL. I. 3

26 HOME AS FOUND.

which were resorted to, however, with a quiet and
unobtrusive assiduity that escaped much observation,
Mr. Bragg contrived to make his own plate a sample
epitome of the first course. It contained in the centre,
fish, beef, and ham ; and around these staple articles,
he had arranged croquettes, rognons, ragouts, vege
tables, and other light things, until not only wras the
plate completely covered, but it was actually covered
in double and triple layers ; mustard, cold butter, salt,
and even pepper, garnishing its edges. These differ
ent accumulations were the work of time and address,
and most of the company had repeatedly changed
their plates before Aristabulus had eaten a mouthful,
the soup excepted. The happy moment when his
ingenuity was to be rewarded, had now arrived, and
the land agent was about to commence the process
of mastication, or of deglutition rather, for he troubled
himself very little with the first operation, when the
report of a cork drew his attention towards the cham-
paigne. To Aristabulus this wine never" came amiss,
for, relishing its piquancy, he had never gone far
enough into the science of the table to learn which
were the proper moments for using it. As respected
all the others at table, this moment had in truth
arrived, though, as respected himself, he was no nearei
to it, according to a regulated taste, than when he
first took his seat. Perceiving that Pierre was serving
it, however, he offered his own glass, and enjoyed a
delicious instant, as he swallowed a beverage that
much surpassed any thing he had ever known to issue
out of the waxed and leaded nozles that, pointed like
so many enemies' batteries, loaded with headaches
and disordered stomachs, garnished sundry village
bars of his acquaintance.

Aristabulus finished his glass at a draught, and
when he took breath, he fairly smacked his lips. That
was an unlucky instant, his plate, burthened with
all its treasures, being removed, at this unguarded

HOME AS FOUND. 27

moment ; the man who performed the unkind office,
fancying that a dislike to the dishes could alone have
given rise to such an omnium-gatherum.

It was necessary to commence de novo, but this
could no longer be done with the first course, which
was removed, and Aristabulus set-to, with zeal, forth
with, on the game. Necessity compelled him to eat, as
the different dishes were offered ; and, such was his
ordinary assiduity with the knife and fork, that, at the
end of the second remove, he had actually disposed
of more food than any other person at table. He now
began to converse, and we shall open the conversa
tion at the precise point in the dinner, when it was in
the power of Aristabulus to make one of the interlo
cutors.

Unlike Mr. Dodge, he had betrayed no peculiar
interest in the baronet, being a man too shrewd and
worldly to set his heart on trifles of any sort ; and Mr.
Bragg no more hesitated about replying to Sir George
Templemore, or Mr. Effingham, than he \vould have
hesitated about answering one of his own nearest asso
ciates. With him age and experience formed no par
ticular claims to be heard, and, as to rank, it is true
he had some vague ideas about there being such a
thing in the militia, but as it was unsalaried rank, he
attached no great importance to it. Sir George Tem
plemore was inquiring concerning the recording of
deeds, a regulation that had recently attracted atten
tion in England ; and one of Mr. Effingham's replies
contained some immaterial inaccuracy, which Arista
bulus took occasion to correct, as his first appearance
in the general discourse.

" I ask pardon, sir," he concluded his explanations
by saying, " but I ought to know these little niceties,
having served a short part of a term as a county
clerk, to fill a vacancy occasioned by a death."

" You mean, Mr. Bragg, that you were employed
to ivrite in a county clerk's office," observed John

28 HOME AS FOUND.

Effingham, who so much disliked untruth, that he did
not hesitate much about refuting it; or what he now
fancied to be an untruth.

" As county clerk, sir. Major Pippin died a year
before his time was out, and I got the appointment.
A.S regular a county clerk, sir, as there is in the fifty-
six counties of New-York."

" When I had the honour to engage you as Mr.
Effingham's agent, sir," returned the other, a little
sternly, for he felt his own character for veracity
involved in that of the subject of his selection, " I
believe, indeed, that you were writing in the office,
but I did not understand it was as the clerk."

" Very true, Mr. John," returned Aristabulus, with
out discovering the least concern, "I was then
engaged by my successor as a clerk ; but a few
months earlier, I filled the office myself."

" Had you gone on, in the regular line of promo
tion, my dear sir," pithily inquired Captain Truck,
" to what preferment would you have risen by this
time?"

" I believe I understand you, gentlemen," returned
the unmoved Aristabulus, who perceived a general
smile. " I know that some people are particular about
keeping pretty much on the same level, as to office :
but I hold to no such doctrine. If one good thing
cannot be had, I do not see that it is a reason for
rejecting another. I ran that year for sheriff, and
finding I was not strong enough to carry the county,
I accepted my successor's offer to write in the office,
until something better might turn up."

" You practised all this time, I believe, Mr. Bragg,"
observed John Effingham*

" I did a little in that way, too, sir ; or as much as
I could. Law is flat with us, of late, and many of
the attorneys are turning their attention to other
callings."

" And pray, sir," asked Sir George, " what is the
favourite pursuit with most of them, just now ?"

HOME AS FOUND. 29

" Some our way have gone into the horse-line ; but
much the greater portion are, just now, dealing in
western cities.

" In western cities !" exclaimed the baronet, looking
as if he distrusted a mystification.

" In such articles, and in mill-seats, and rail-road
lines, and other expectations."

" Mr. Bragg means that they are buying and sell
ing lands on which it is hoped all these conveniences
may exist, a century hence," explained John Effing-
ham.

" The hope is for next year, or next week, even, Mr.
John," returned Aristabulus, with a sly look, " though
you may be very right as to the reality. Great for
tunes have been made on a capital of hopes, lately, in
this country."

" And have you been able, yourself, to resist these
temptations ?" asked Mr. Effingham. " I feel doubly
indebted to you, sir, that you should have continued
to devote your time to my interests, while so many
better things were offering."

" It was my duty, sir," said Aristabulus, bowing so-
much the lower, from the consciousness that he had
actually deserted his post for some months, to
embark in the western speculations that were then so
active in the country, " not to say my pleasure. There
are many profitable occupations in this country, Sir
George, that have been overlooked in the eagerness to
embark in the town-trade "

" Mr. Bragg does not mean trade in town, but trade
in towns," explained John Effingham.

" Yes, sir, the traffic in cities. I never come this
way, without casting an eye about me, in order to see
if there is any thing to be done that is useful; and I
confess that several available opportunities have
offered, if one had capital. Milk is a good business."

" Le lait /" exclaimed Mademoiselle Viefville, invol
untarily.

3*

30 HOME AS FOUPfD.

"Yes, ma'am, for ladies as well as gentlemen.
Sweet potatoes I have heard well spoken of, and
peaches are really making some rich men's fortunes."

" All of which are honester and better occupations
than the traffic in cities, that you have mentioned,"
quietly observed Mr. Effingham.

Aristabulus looked up in a little surprise, for \vith
him every thing was eligible that returned a good
profit, and all things honest that the law did not actu
ally punish. Perceiving, however, that the company
was disposed to listen, and having, by this time, reco
vered the lost ground, in the wray of food, he cheer
fully resumed -his theme.

" Many families have left Otsego, this and the last
summer, Mr. Effingham, as emigrants for the west.
The fever has spread far and wide."

" The fever ! Is old Otsego," for so its inhabitants
loved to call a county of half a century's existence,
it being venerable by comparison, " is old Otsego losing
its well established character for salubrity ?"

" I do not allude to an animal fever, but to the west
ern fever."

" Ce pays de Pouest, est-il bien malsain ?" whispered
Mademoiselle Viefville.

" Apparemment, Mademoiselle, sur plusieurs rap
ports."

" The western fever has seized old and young, and
it has carried off many active families from our part
of the world," continued Aristabulus, who did not un
derstand the little aside just mentioned, and who, of
course, did not, heed it ; " most of the counties adjoin
ing our own have lost a considerable portion of their
population."

" And they who have gone, do they belong to the
permanent families, or are they merely the floating in
habitants ?" inquired Mr. Effingham.

" Most of them belong to the regular movers."

" Movers !" again exclaimed Sir George — " is there

HOME AS FOUND. 31

any material part of your population who actually de
serve this name 1"

"As much so as the man who shoes a horse ought
to be called a smith, or the man who frames a house a
carpenter," answered John Effingham.

" To be sure," continued Mr. Bragg, " we have a
pretty considerable leaven of them in our political
dough, as well as in our active business. I believe,
Sir George, that in England, men are tolerably sta
tionary."

" We love to continue for generations on the same
spot. We love the tree that our forefathers planted,
the roof that they built, the fire-side by which they sat,
the sods that cover their remains."

" Very poetical, and I dare say there are situations
in life, in which such feelings come in without much
effort. It must be a great check to business opera
tions, however, in your part of the world, sir !"

" Business operations ! — what is business, as you
term it, sir, to the affections, to the recollections of ances
try, and to the solemn feelings connected with history
and tradition?'

" Why, sir, in the way of history, one meets writh
but few incumbrances in this country, but he may do
very much as interest dictates, so far as that is con
cerned, at least. A nation is much to be pitied that is
weighed down by the past, in this manner, since its in
dustry and enterprize are constantly impeded by ob
stacles that grow out of its recollections. America
may, indeed, be termed a happy and a free country,
Mr. John Effingham, in this, as well as in all other
things !"

Sir George Templemore was too well-bred to utter
all he felt at that moment, as it would unavoidably
wound the feelings of his hosts, but he was rewarded
for his forbearance by intelligent smiles from Eve and
Grace, the latter of whom the young baronet fancied,
just at that moment, was quite as beautiful as her

32 HOME AS FOUND.

cousin, and if less finished in manners, she had the
most interesting naivete.

" I have been told that most old nations have to strug
gle with difficulties that we escape," returned John Ef-
fingham, " though I confess this is a superiority on our
part, that never before presented itself to my mind."

" The political economists, and even the geographers
have overlooked it, but practical men see and feel its
advantages, every hour in the day. I have been told,
Sir George Templemore, that in England, there are
difficulties in running high-ways and streets through
homesteads and dwellings; and that even a rail-road,
or a canal, is obliged to make a curve to avoid a
church-yard or a tomb-stone ?"

*' I confess to the sin, sir."

" Our friend Mr. Bragg," put in John Effingham,
"considers life as all means and no end."

" An end cannot be got at without the means, Mr.
John Effingham, as I trust you will, yourself, admit.
I am for the end of the road, at least, and must say
that I rejoice in being a native of a country in which
as few impediments as possible exist to onward im
pulses. The man who should resist an improvement,
in our part of the country, on account of his forefathers,
would fare badly among his contemporaries."

" Will you permit me to ask, Mr. Bragg, if you fee]
no local attachments yourself," enquired the baronet,
throwing as much delicacy into the tones of his voice,
as a question that he felt ought to be an insult to a
man's heart, would allow — " if one tree is not more
pleasant than another ; the house you were born in
more beautiful than a house into which you never
entered; or the altar at which you have long wor
shipped, more sacred than another at which you never
knelt ?"

"Nothing gives me greater satisfaction than to
answer the questions of gentlemen that travel through
our country," returned Anstabulus, "for I think, in

HOME AS POUND. . 33

making nations acquainted with each other, we en
courage trade and render business more secure. To
reply to your inquiry, a human being is not a cat, to
love a locality rather than its own interests. I have
found some trees much pleasanter than others, and the
pleasantest tree I can remember was one of my own,
out of which the sawyers made a thousand feet of
clear stuff, to say nothing of middlings. The house I
was born in was pulled down, shortly after my birth,
as indeed has been its successor, so I can tell you no
thing on that Lead ; and as for altars, there are none
in my persuasion."

" The church of Mr. Bragg has stripped itself as
naked as he would strip every thing else, if he could,"
said John Effingham. " I much question if he ever
knelt even ; much less before an altar."

" We are of the standing order, certainly," returned
Aristabulus, glancing towards the ladies to discover
how they took his wit, «* and Mr. John Effingham is as
near right as a man need be, in a matter of faith. In
the way of houses, Mr. Effingham, I believe it is the
general opinion you might have done better with your
own, than to have repaired it. Had the materials been
disposed of, they would have sold well, and by running
a street through the property, a pretty sum might have
been realized."

" In which case I should have been without a home,
Mr. Bragg."

" It would have been no great matter to get another
on cheaper land. The old residence would have made
a good factory, or an inn."

" Sir, I am a cat, and like the places I have long
frequented."

Aristabulus, though not easily daunted, \vas awed by
Mr. Effingham's manner, and Eve saw that her father's
fine face had flushed. This interruption, therefore,
suddenly changed the discourse, which has been re
lated at some length, as likely to give the reader a

34 HOME AS FOUND.

better insight into a character that will fill some space
in our narrative, than a more laboured description.

" I trust your owners, Captain Truck," said John
Effingham, by way of turning the conversation into
another channel, " are fully satisfied with the manner
in which you saved their property from the hands of
the Arabs ?"

" Men, when money is concerned, are more disposed
to remember how it was lost than how it was recover
ed, religion and trade being the two poles, on such a
point," returned the old seaman, with a serious face.
" On the whole, my dear sir, I have reason to be satis
fied, however; and so long as you, my passengers and
my friends, are not inclined to blame me, I shall feel
as if I had done at least a part of my duty."

Eve rose from table, went to a side-board and re
turned, when she gracefully placed before the master
of the Montauk a rich and beautifully chased punch
bowl, in silver. Almost at the same moment, Pierre
offered a salver that contained a capital watch, a pair
of small silver tongs to hold a coal, and a deck trum
pet, in solid silver.

" These are so many faint testimonials of our feel
ings," said Eve — " and you will do us the favour to
retain them, as evidences of the esteem created by
skill, kindness, and courage."

" My dear young lady !" cried the old tar, touched
to the soul by the feeling with which Eve acquitted
herself of this little duty, " my dear young lady — well,
God bless you — God bless you all — you too, Mr. John
Effingham, for that matter — and Sir George — that I
should ever have taken that runaway for a gentleman
and a baronet — though I suppose there are some silly
baronets, as well as silly lords — retain them ?" — glanc
ing furiously at Mr. Aristabulus Bragg, " may the Lord
forget me, in the heaviest hurricane, if I ever forget
whence these things came, and why they were given.'

Here the worthy captain was obliged to swallow

HOME AS FOUND. 35

some wine, by way of relieving his emotions, and
Aristabulus, profiting by the opportunity, coolly took
the bowl, which, to use a word of his own, he hefted
in his hand, with a view to form some tolerably accu
rate notion of its intrinsic value. Captain Truck's eye
caught the action, and he reclaimed his property quite
as unceremoniously as it had been taken away, nothing
but the presence of the ladies preventing an outbreak
ing that would have amounted to a declaration of war.

" With your permission, sir," said the captain, drily,
after he had recovered the bowl, not only without the
other's consent, but, in some degree, against his will ;
" this bowl is as precious in my eyes as if it were
made of my father's bones."

" You may indeed think so," returned the land-agent,
" for its cost could not be less than a hundred dollars.''

" Cost, sir! — But, my dear young lady, let us talk
of the real value. For what part of these things am I
indebted to you?"

" The bowl is my offering," Eve answered, smiling
ly, though a tear glistened in her eye, as she witnessed
the strong unsophisticated feeling of the old tar. " I
thought it might serve sometimes to bring me to your
recollection, when it was well filled in honour of
' sweethearts and wives.' "

" It shall — it shall, by the Lord ; and Mr. Saunders
needs look to it, if he do not keep this work as bright
as a cruising frigate's bottom. To whom do I owe
the coal-tongs ?"

" Those are from Mr. John Effingham, who insists
that he will come nearer to your heart than any of us,
though the gift be of so little cost."

" He does not know me, my dear young lady — no
body ever got as near my heart as you ; no, not even
my own dear pious old mother. But I thank Mr. John
Effingham from my inmost spirit, and shall seldom
smoke without thinking of him. The watch I know
is Mr. Effingham's, and I ascribe the trumpet to Sir
George."

36 HOME AS FOUND.

The bows of the several gentlemen assured the cap-
tain he was right, and he shook each of them cordially
by the hand, protesting, in the fulness of his heart, that
nothing would give him greater pleasure than to be
able to go through the same perilous scenes as those
from which they had so lately escaped, in their good
company again.

While this was going on, Aristabulus, notwith
standing the rebuke he had received, contrived to get
each article, in succession, into his hands, and by dint
of poising it on a finger, or by examining it, to form
some approximative notion of its inherent value. The
watch he actually opened, taking as good a survey of
its works as the circumstances of the case would very
well allow.

" I respect these things, sir, more than you respect
your father's grave," said Captain Truck sternly, as
he rescued the last article from what he thought the
impious grasp of Aristabulus again, " and cat or no
cat, they sink or swim with me for the remainder of
the cruise. If there is any virtue in a will, which I
am sorry to say I hear there is not any longer, they
shall share my last bed with me, be it ashore or be it
afloat. My dear young lady, fancy all the rest, but
depend on it, punch will be sweeter than ever taken
from this bowl, and ' sweethearts and wives' will
never be so honoured again."

" We are going to a ball this evening, at the house
of one with whom I am sufficiently intimate to take
the liberty of introducing a stranger, and I wish, gen
tlemen," said Mr. Effingham, bowing to Aristabulus
and the captain, by way of changing the conversation,
'* you would do me the favour to be of our party."

Mr. Bragg acquiesced very cheerfully, and quite as
a matter of course; while Captain Truck, after pro
testing his unfitness for such scenes, was finally pre
vailed on by John Effingham, to comply with the re
quest also. The ladies remained at table but a few

HOME AS FOUND. 37

minutes longer, when they retired, Mr. Effingham
having dropped into the old custom of sitting at the
bottle, until summoned to the drawing-room, a usage
that continues to exist in America, for a reason no
better than the fact that it continues to exist in England ;
— it being almost certain that it will cease in New-York,
the season after it is known to have ceased in London.

CHAPTER III.

" Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful !"

SHAKSPEARE.

As Captain Truck asked permission to initiate the
new coal-tongs by lighting a cigar, Sir George Tem-
plemore contrived to ask Pierre, in an aside, if the la
dies would allow him to join them. The desired con
sent having been obtained, the baronet quietly stole
from table, and was soon beyond the odours of the
dining-room.

" You miss the censer and the frankincense," said
Eve, laughing, as Sir George entered the drawing-
room ; " but you will remember we have no church
establishment, and dare not take such liberties with the
ceremonials of the altar."

" That is a short-lived custom with us, I fancy,
though far from an unpleasant one. But you do me
injustice in supposing I am merely running away from
the fumes of the dinner."

" No, no ; we understand perfectly well that you
have something to do with the fumes of flattery, and
we will at once fancy all has been said that the occa
sion requires. Is not our honest old captain a jewel
in hi3 way ?"

" Upon my word, since you allow me to speak of
your father's guests, I do not think it possible to have

VOL. I. 4

38 HOME AS FOUND.

Drought together two men who are so completely the
opposites of each other, as Captain Truck and this Mr.
Aristabulus Bragg. The latter is quite the most extra
ordinary person in his way, it was ever my good for
tune to meet with."

" You call him a person, while Pierre calls him a
personnage ; I fancy he considers it very much as a
matter of accident, whether he is to pass his days in
the one character or in the other. Cousin Jack assures
me, that, while this man accepts almost any duty that
he chooses to assign him, he would not deem it at all
a violation of the convenances to aim at the throne in
the White House."

" Certainly with no hopes of ever attaining it !"

" One cannot answer for that. The man must un
dergo many essential changes, and much radical im
provement, before such a climax to his fortunes can
ever occur; but the instant you do away writh the
claims of hereditary power, the door is opened to a
new chapter of accidents. Alexander of Russia styled
himself un heureux accident ; and should it ever be oui
fortune to receive Mr. Bragg as President, we shall
only have to term him un malheureux accident. I
believe that will contain all the difference."

" Your republicanism is indomitable, Miss Effingham,
and I shall abandon the attempt to convert you to safer
principles, more especially as I find you supported by
both the Mr. Effinghams, who, while they condemn so
much at home, seem singularly attached to their own
system at the bottom."

" They condemn, Sir George Templemore, because
they know that perfection is hopeless, and because
they feel it to be unsafe and unwise to eulogize defects,
and they are attached, because near views of other
countries have convinced them that, comparatively at
least, bad as we are, we are still better than most of
our neighbours."

" I can assure you," said Grace, " that many of the
opinions of Mr- John Effingham, in particular, are not

HOME AS FOUND. 39

at all the opinions that are most in vogue here ; he
rather censures what we like, and likes what we cen
sure. Even my dear uncle is thought to be a little
heterodox on such subjects."

" I can readily believe it," returned Eve, steadily.
" These gentlemen, having become familiar with better
things, in the way of the tastes, and of the purely
agreeable, cannot discredit their own knowledge so
much as to extol that which their own experience tells
them is faulty, or condemn that which their own expe
rience tells them is relatively good. Now, Grace, if
you will reflect a moment, you will perceive that peo
ple necessarily like the best of their own tastes, until
they come to a knowledge of better ; and that they as
necessarily quarrel with the unpleasant facts that sur
round them ; although these facts, as consequences of
a political system, may be much less painful than those
of other systems of which they have no knowledge.
In the one case, they like their own best, simply because
it is their own best ; and they dislike their own worst,
because it is their own worst. We cherish a taste, in
the nature of things, without entering into any compa
risons, for when the means of comparison offer, and
we find improvements, it ceases to be a taste at all ;
while to complain of any positive grievance, is the
nature of man, I fear !"

" I think a republic odious !"

" Le republique est une horreur /"

Grace thought a republic odious, without knowing
any thing of any other state of society, and because
it contained odious things ; and Mademoiselle Viefville
called a republic une horreur, because heads fell and
anarchy prevailed in her own country, during its early
struggles for liberty. Though Eve seldom spoke more
sensibly, and never more temperately, than while deli
vering the foregoing opinions, Sir George Templemore
doubted whether she had all that exquisite finesse and
delicacy of features, that he had so much admired ; and

40 HOME AS FOUND.

when Grace burst out in the sudden and senseless
exclamation we have recorded, he turned towards her
sweet and animated countenance, which, for the mo
ment, he fancied the loveliest of the two.

Eve Effingham had yet to learn that she had just
entered into the most intolerant society, meaning purely
as society, and in connexion with what are usually
called liberal sentiments, in Christendom. We do not
mean by this, that it would be less safe to utter a gene
rous opinion in favour of human rights in America than
in any other country, for the lawrs and the institutions
become active in this respect, but simply, that the resist
ance of the more refined to the encroachments of the
unrefined, has brought about a state of feeling — a feel
ing that is seldom just and never philosophical — which
has created a silent but almost unanimous bias against
the effects of the institutions, in what is called the
world. In Europe, one rarely utters a sentiment of
this nature, under circumstances in which it is safe to
do so at all, without finding a very general sympathy
in the auditors ; but in the circle into which Eve had
now fallen, it \vas almost considered a violation of the
proprieties. We do not wish to be understood as say
ing more than we mean, however, for \ve have no
manner of doubt that a large portion of the dissentients
even, are so idly, and without reflection ; or for the
very natural reasons already given by our heroine ;
but we do wish to be understood as meaning that such
is the outward appearance which American society
presents to every stranger, and to every native of the
country too, on his return from a residence among
other people. Of its taste, wisdom and safety we
shall not now speak, but content ourselves with merely
saying that the effect of Grace's exclamation on Eve
was unpleasant, and that, unlike the baronet, she
thought her cousin \vas never less handsome than
W7hile her pretty face was covered wTith the pettish
frown it had assumed for the occasion.

HOME AS FOUND. 41

Sir George Templemore had tact enough to perceive
.here had been a slight jar in the feelings of these two
young women, and he adroitly changed the conversa
tion. With Eve he had entire confidence on the score
of provincialisms, and, without exactly anticipating
the part Grace would be likely to take in such a dis
cussion, he introduced the subject of general society
in New-York.

" I am desirous to know," he said, " if you have
your sets, as we have them in London and Paris,
Whether you have your Faubourg St. Germain and
your Chaussee d'Jlntin ; your Piccadilly, Grosvenor
and Russel Squares."

" I must refer you to Miss Van Cortlandt for an
answer to that question," said Eve.

Grace looked up blushing, for there were both no
velty and excitement in having an intelligent foreigner
question her on such a subject.

'• I do not know that I rightly understand the allu
sion," she said, " although I am afraid Sir George Tem
plemore means to ask if we have distinctions in so
ciety 1"

"'And why afraid, Miss Van Cortlandt 1"

" Because it strikes me such a question would imply
a doubt of our civilization."

" There are frequently distinctions made, when
the differences are not obvious," observed Eve. " Even
London and Paris are not above the imputation of this
folly. Sir George Templemore, if I understand him,
wishes to know if we estimate gentility by streets, and
quality by squares."

" Not exactly that either, Miss Effingham — but, whe
ther among those, who may very well pass for gentle
men and ladies, you enter into the minute distinctions
that are elsewhere found. Whether you have your
exclusives, and your elegants and iUgantes ; or whe
ther you deem all within the pale as on an equality."
4*

42 HOME AS FOUND.

"Lesfemmcs Jlmericaines sont bienjolies /" exclaimed
Mademoiselle Viefville.

" It is quite impossible that coteries should not form
in a town of three hundred thousand souls."

" I do not mean exactly even that. Is there no dis
tinction between coteries ; is not one placed by opinion,
by a silent consent, if not by positive ordinances, above
another ?"

" Certainly, that to which Sir George Templemore
alludes, is to be found," said Grace, wrho gained cou
rage to speak, as she found the subject getting to be
more clearly within her comprehension. " All the old
families, for instance, keep more together than the
others ; though it is the subject of regret that they are
not more particular than they are."

" Old families !" exclaimed Sir George Templemore,
with quite as much stress as a well-bred man could
very well lay on the words, in such circumstances.

" Old families," repeated Eve, with all that empha
sis which the baronet himself had hesitated about giv
ing. " As old, at least, as two centuries can make
them ; and this, too, with origins beyond that period,
like those of the rest of the world. Indeed, the Ame
rican has a better gentility than common, as, besides
his own, he may take root in that of Europe."

" Do not misconceive me, Miss Effingham ; I am
fully aware that the people of this country are exactly
like the people of all other civilized countries, in this
respect ; but my surprise is that, in a republic, you
should have such a term even as that of * old families.'"

" The surprise has arisen, I must be permitted to say,
from not having sufficiently reflected on the real state
of the country. There are two great causes of dis
tinction every where, wealth and merit. Now, if a
race of Americans continue conspicuous in their own
society, through either or both of these causes, for a
succession of generations, why have they not the same
claims to be considered members of old families, as

HOME AS FOUND. 43

Europeans under the same circumstances? A re
publican history is as much history as a monarchical
history ; and a historical name in one, is quite as much
entitled to consideration, as a historical name in ano
ther. Nay, you admit this in your European repub
lics, while you wish to deny it in ours."

" I must insist on having proofs ; if we permit these
charges to be brought against us without evidence,
Mademoiselle Viefville, we shall finally be defeated
through our own neglect."

" C'est une belle illustration, celle de I'antiquite" ob
served the governess, in a matter of course tone.

" If you insist on proof, what answer can you urge
to the Capponi ? ' Sonnez vos trompettes, et je vaisfaire
sonner mes cloches' — or to the Von Erlachs, a family
that has headed so many resistances to oppression and
invasion, for five centuries V

" All this is very true," returned Sir George, " and
yet I confess it is not the way in which it is usual with
us to consider American society."

" A descent from Washington, with a character and
a social position to correspond, would not be abso
lutely vulgar, notwithstanding !"

" Nay, if you press me so hard, I must appeal to
Miss Van Cortlandt for succour."

"On this point you will find no support in that
quarter. Miss Van Cortlandt has an historical name
herself, and will not forego an honest pride, in order
to relieve one of the hostile powers from a dilemma."

" While I admit that time and merit must, in a certain
sense, place families in America in the same situation
with families in Europe, I cannot see that it is in con
formity with your institutions to lay the same stress on
the circumstance."

" In that we are perfectly of a mind, as I think the
American has much the best reason to be proud of his
family," said Eve, quietly.

" Y on delight in paradoxes, apparently, this evening,
Miss Effingham, for I now feel very certain you can

44 HOME AS FOUND.

hardly make out a plausible defence of this new posi«
tion."

" If I had my old ally, Mr. Powis, here," said Eve,
touching the fender unconsciously with her little foot,
and perceptibly losing the animation and pleasantry of
her voice, in tones that were gentler, if not melancholy,
" I should ask him to explain this matter to you, for he
was singularly ready in such replies. As he is absent,
however, I will attempt the duty myself. In Europe,
office, power, and consequently, consideration, are all
hereditary ; whereas, in this country, they are not, but
they depend on selection. Now, surely, one has more
reason to be proud of ancestors who have been chosen
to fill responsible stations, than of ancestors who have
filled them through the accidents, heureux ou malheu-
reux, of birth. The only difference between England
and America, as respects family, is that you add posi
tive rank to that to which we only give consideration.
Sentiment is at the bottom of our nobility, and the
great seal at the bottom of yours. And now, having
established the fact that there are families in America,
let us return whence we started, and enquire how far
they have an influence in every-day society."

" To ascertain which, we must apply to Miss Van
Cortlandt."

" Much less than they ought, if my opinion is to be
taken," said Grace, laughing, " for the great inroad of
strangers has completely deranged all the suitable
nesses, in that respect."

" And yet, I dare say, these very strangers do good,"
rejoined Eve. " Many of them must have been re
spectable in their native places, and ought to be an ac
quisition to a society that, in its nature, must be, Grace,
tant soit pen, provincial."

" Oh !" cried Grace, " I can tolerate any thing but
the Hajjis !"

" The what ?" asked Sir George, eagerly — " will you
suffer me to ask an explanation, Miss Van Cortlandt.'

HOME AS FOUND. 45

" The Hajjis," repeated Grace laughing, though she
blushed to the eyes.

The baronet looked from one cousin to the other,
and then turned an inquiring glance on Mademoiselle
Viefville. The latter gave a slight shrug, and seemed
to ask an explanation of the young lady's meaning
herself.

"A Hajji is one of a class, Sir George Temple-
more," Eve at length said, " to which you and I have
both the honour of belonging."

" No, not Sir George Templemore," interrupted
Grace, with a precipitation that she instantly regretted ;
" he is not an American."

" Then I, alone, of all present, have that honour. It
means the pilgrimage to Paris, instead of Mecca ; and
the Pilgrim must be an American, instead of a Ma-
hommedan."

" Nay, Eve, you are not a Hajji, neither."

" Then there is some qualification with which I am
not yet acquainted. Will you relieve our doubts,
Grace, and let us know the precise character of the
animal."

" You stayed too long to be a Hajji — one must get
innoculated merely ; not take the disease and become
cured, to be a true Hajji."

" I thank you, Miss Van Cortlandt, for this descrip
tion," returned Eve in her quiet w^ay. " I hope, as I
have gone through the malady, it has not left me pit
ted."

" I should like to see one of these Hajjis," cried Sir
George. — " Are they of both sexes ?"

Grace laughed and nodded her head.

" Will you point it out to me, should we be so fortu
nate as to encounter one this evening?"

Again Grace laughed and nodded her head.

" I have been thinking, Grace," said Eve, after a
short pause, " that we may give Sir George Temple-
more a better idea of the sets about which he is so

46 HOME AS FOUND.

curious, by doing what is no more than a duty of our
own, and by letting him profit by the opportunity.
Mrs. Hawker receives this evening without ceremony ;
we have not yet sent our answer to Mrs. Jar vis, and
might very well look in upon her for half an hour,
after which wre shall be in very good season for Mrs.
Houston's ball."

" Surely, Eve, you would not wish to take Sir
George Templemore to such a house as that of Mrs.
Jarvis !"

" / do not wish to take Sir George Templemore any
where, for your Hajjis have opinions of their own on
such subjects. But, as cousin Jack wdll accompany
us, he may very well confer that important favour. I
dare say, Mrs. Jarvis will not look upon it as too great
a liberty."

. " I will answer for it, that nothing Mr. John Effing-
ham can do will be thought mal & propos by Mrs.
Jared Jarvis. His position in society is too well
established, and hers is too equivocal, to leave any
doubt on that head."

" This, you perceive, settles the point of coteries"
said Eve to the baronet. "Volumes might be written
to establish principles ; but when one can do any thing
he or she pleases, any wrhere that he or she likes, it is
pretty safe to say that he or she is privileged."

" All very true, as to the fact, Miss Effingham ; but
I should like exceedingly to know the reason."

" Half the time, such things are decided without a
reason at all. You are a little exacting in requiring
a reason in New-York for that which is done in Lon
don without even the pretence of such a thing. It is
sufficient that Mrs. Jarvis will be delighted to see you
without an invitation, and that Mrs. Houston would,
at least, think it odd, were you to take the same
liberty with her."

" It follows," said Sir George, smiling, " that Mrs.
Jarvis is much the most hospitable person of the two.

HOME AS FOUND. 47

" But, Eve, what shall be done with Captain Truck
And Mr. Bragg?' asked Grace. "We cannot take
them to Mrs. Hawker's !"

" Aristabulus would, indeed, be a little out of place
in such a house, but as for our excellent, brave,
straight-forward, old captain, he is worthy to go any
where. I shall be delighted to present him to Mrs.
Hawker, myself."

After a little consultation between the ladies, it was
settled that nothing should be said of the two first,
visits to Mr. Bragg, but that Mr. Effingham should be
requested to bring him to the ball, at the proper hour,
and that the rest of the party should go quietly off to
the other places, without mentioning their projects.
As soon as this was arranged the ladies retired to
dress, Sir George Templemore passing into the library
to amuse himself with a book the while ; where, how
ever, he was soon joined by John Effingham. Here
the former revived the conversation on distinctions in
society, with the confusion of thought that usually
marks a European's notions of such matters.

CHAPTER IV.

Ready."

"And I."

"And I."

"Where shall we go?"

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

GRACE VAN CORTLANDT was the first to make her
appearance after the retreat from the drawing-room.
It has often been said that, pretty as the American
females incontestably are, as a whole they appear
better in demi-toifette, than when attired for a ball.
With what would be termed high dress in other parts

48 HOME AS FOUND,

of the world, they are little acquainted ; but reversing
the rule of Europe, where the married bestow the
most care on their personal appearance, and the single
are taught to observe a rigid simplicity, Grace now
seemed sufficiently ornamented in the eyes of the fas
tidious baronet, while, at the same time, he thought
her less obnoxious to the criticism just mentioned,
than most of her young countrywomen, in general.

An embonpoint that was just sufficient to distin
guish her from most of her companions, a fine colour,
brilliant eyes, a sweet smile, rich hair, and such feet
and hands as Sir George Templemore had, somehow —
he scarcely knew how, himself — fancied could only
belong to the daughters of peers and princes, rendered
Grace so strikingly attractive this evening, that the
young baronet began to think her even handsomer
than her cousin. There was also a charm in the
unsophisticated simplicity of Grace, that was particu
larly alluring to a man educated amidst the coldness
and mannerism of the higher classes of England. In
Grace, too, this simplicity was chastened by perfect
decorum and retenue of deportment ; the exube
rance of the new school of manners not having helped
to impair the dignity of her character, or to weaken
the charm of diffidence. She was less finished in her
manners than Eve, certainly ; a circumstance, perhaps,
that induced Sir George Templemore to fancy her
a shade more simple, but she was never unfeminine
or unladylike ; and the term vulgar, in despite of all
the capricious and arbitrary rules of fashion, under
no circumstances, could ever be applied to Grace
Van Cortlandt. In this respect, nature seemed to
have aided her ; for had not her associations raised
her above such an imputation, no one could believe
that she would be obnoxious to the charge, had her
lot in life been cast even many degrees lower than it
actually was.

It is well known that, after a sufficient similarity

HOME AS FOUND. 49

has been created by education to prevent any violent
shocks to our habits or principles, \ve most affect
those whose characters and dispositions the least
resemble our own. This was probably one of the
reasons why Sir George Templemore, w<ho, for some
time, had been well assured of the hopelessness of his
suit with Eve, began to regard her scarcely less
lovely cousin, with an interest of a novel and lively
nature. Quick-sighted and deeply interested in Grace's
happiness, Miss Effingham had already detected this
change in the young baronet's inclinations, and though
sincerely rejoiced on her own account, she did not
observe it without concern ; for she understood better
than most of her countrywomen, the great hazards
of destroying her peace of mind, that are incurred by
transplanting an American woman into the more arti
ficial circles of the old world.

" I shall rely on your kind offices, in particular,
Miss Van Cortlandt, to reconcile Mrs. Jarvis and
Mrs. Hawker to the liberty I am about to take," cried
Sir George, as Grace burst upon them in the library,
in a blaze of beauty that, in her case, was aided by
her attire ; " and cold-hearted and unchristian-like
women they must be, indeed, to resist such a medi
ator !"

Grace was unaccustomed to adulation of this sort ;
for though the baronet spoke gaily, and like one half
trifling, his look of admiration was too honest to
escape the intuitive perception of woman. She
blushed deeply, and then recovering herself instantly,
said with a naivete that had a thousand charms with
her listener —

" I do not see why Miss Effingham and myself
should hesitate about introducing you at either place.
Mrs. Hawker is a relative and an intimate — an inti
mate of mine, at least — and as for poor Mrs. Jarvis,
she is the daughter of an old neighbour, and will be

VOL. I. 5

50 HOME AS FOUND.

too glad to see us, to raise objections. I fancy any
one of a certain " Grace hesitated and laughed.

"Any one of a certain — — ? " said Sir George,
inquiringly.

" Any one from this house," resumed the young lady,
correcting the intended expression, " will be welcome
in Spring street."

" Pure, native aristocracy !" exclaimed the baronet,
with an air of affected triumph. " This you see, Mr.
John Effingham, is in aid of my argument."

" I am quite of your opinion," returned the gentle
man addressed — "as much native aristocracy as you
please, but no hereditary."

The entrance of Eve and Mademoiselle Viefville
interrupted this pleasantry, and the carriages being
just then announced, John Effingham went in quest of
Captain Truck, who was in the drawing-room with
Mr. Effingham and Aristabulus.

" I have left Ned to discuss trespass suits and leases
with his land-agent," said John Effingham, as he fol
lowed Eve to the street-door. " By ten o'clock, they
will have taxed a pretty bill of costs between them !"

Mademoiselle Viefville followed John Effingham ;
Grace came next, and Sir George Templemore and
the Captain brought up the rear. Grace wondered the
young baronet did not offer her his arm, for she had
been accustomed to receive this attention from the
other sex, in a hundred situations in which it was rather
an incumbrance than a service ; while on the other
hand, Sir George himself would have hesitated about
offering such assistance, as an act of uncalled-for fami
liarity.

Miss Van Cortlandt, being much in society, kept a
chariot for her own use, and the three ladies took their
seats in it, while the gentlemen took possession of Mr.
Effingham's coach. The order was given to drive to
Spring street, and the whole party proceeded.

The acquaintance between the Effinghams and Mr

HOME AS FOUND. 51

Jarvis had arisen from the fact of their having been
near, and, in a certain sense, sociable neighbours in the
country. Their town associations, however, were as
distinct as if they dwelt in different hemispheres, with
the exception of an occasional morning call, and, now
and then, a family dinner given by Mr. Effingham.
Such had been the nature of the intercourse previously
to the family of the latter's having gone abroad, and
there were symptoms of its being renewed on the same
quiet and friendly footing as formerly. But no two be
ings could be less alike, in certain essentials, than Mr.
Jarvis and his wife, The former was a plain pains
taking, sensible man of business, while the latter had
an itching desire to figure in the world of fashion.
The first was perfectly aware that Mr. Effingham, in
education, habits, associations and manners, was, at
least, of a class entirely distinct from his own ; and
without troubling himself to analyze causes, and with
out a feeling of envy, or unkindness of any sort, while
totally exempt from any undue deference or unmanly
cringing, he quietly submitted to let things take their
course. His wife expressed her surprise that any one
in New-York should presume to be better than them
selves ; and the remark gave rise to the following short
conversation, on the very morning of the day she gave
the party, to which we are now conducting the reader.

" How do you know, my dear, that any one does
think himself our better ?" demanded the husband.

" Why do they not all visit us then !"

"Why do you not visit everybody yourself? A
pretty household we should have, if you did nothing
but visit every one who lives even in this street !"

" You surely would not have me visiting the gro
cers' wives at the corners, and all the other rubbish of
the neighbourhood. What I mean is that all the peo
ple of a certain sort ought to visit all the other people
of a certain sort, in the same town."

" You surely will make an exception, at least on

52 HOME AS FOUND.

account of numbers. I saw number three thousand
six hundred and fifty this very day on a cart, and if
the wives of all these carmen should visit one another,
each would have to make ten visits daily in order to
get through with the list in a twelvemonth."

" I have always bad luck in making you compre
hend these things, Mr. Jarvis."

" I am afraid, my dear, it is because you do not very
clearly comprehend them yourself. You first say that
everybody ought to visit everybody, and then you insist
on it, you will visit none but those you think good
enough to be visited by Mrs. Jared Jarvis."

" What I mean is, that no one in New-York nas a
right to think himself, or herself, better than ourselves."

" Better ? — In what sense better ?"

"In such a sense as to induce them to think them
selves too good to visit us."

" That may be your opinion, my dear, but others
may judge differently. You clearly think yourself too
good to visit Mrs. Onion, the grocer's wile, who is a
capital woman in her way ; and how do we knowr that
certain people may not. fancy we are not quite refined
enough for them ? Refinement is a positive thing, Mrs.
Jarvis, and one that has much more influence on the
pleasures of association than money. We may want
a hundred little perfections that escape our ignorance,
and which those who are trained to such matters deem
essentials."

" I never met with a man of so little social spirit,
Mr. Jarvis ! Really, you are quite unsuited to be a
citizen of a republican country."

" Republican ! — I do not really see what republican
has to do with the question. In the first place, it is a
droll word for you to use in this sense at least ; for,
taking your own meaning of the term, you are as anti-
republican as any woman I know. But a republic does
not necessarily infer equality of condition, or even
equality of rights, — it meaning merely the substitution

HOME AS FOUND. 53

of the right of the commonwealth for the right of a
prince. Had you said a democracy there would have
been some plausibility in using the word, though even
then its application would have been illogical. If I am
a freeman and a democrat, I hope I have the justice
to allow others to be just as free and democratic as I
am myself."

" And who wishes the contrary? — all I ask is a claim
to be considered a fit associate for anybody in this
country — in these United States of America."

" I would quit these United States of America next
week, if I thought there existed any necessity for such
an intolerable state of things."

" Mr. Jarvis ! — and you, too, one of the Committee
of Tammany Hall !"

" Yes, Mrs. Jarvis, and I one of the Committee of
Tammany Hall ! What, do you think I want the three
thousand six hundred and fifty carmen running in and
out of my house, with their tobacco saliva and pipes,
ill day long ?'

" Who is thinking of your carmen and grocers ! — I
speak now only of genteel people."

" In other words, my dear, you are thinking only
of those whom you fancy to have the advantage of
you, and keep those who think of you in the same
way, quite out of sight. This is not my democracy
and freedom. I believe that it requires two people to
make a bargain ; and although I may consent to dine

with A , if A will not consent to dine with

me, there is an end of the matter."

"Now, you have come to a case in point. You
often dined with Mr. Effingham before he went abroad,
and yet you would never allow me to ask Mr. Effing-
ham to dine with us. That is what I call meanness."

" It might be so, indeed, if it were done to save my

money. I dined with Mr. Effingham because I like

him; because he was an old neighbour; because he

visked me, and because I found a pleasure in the quiet

5*

54 HOME AS FOUND.

elegance of his table and society; and I did not ask
him to dine with me, because I was satisfied he would
be better pleased with such a tacit acknowledgement
of his superiority in this respect, than by any bustling
and ungraceful efforts to pay him in kind. Edward
Effingham has dinners enough, without keeping a
debtor and credit account with his guests, which is
rather too New-Yorkisb, even for me."

" Bustling and ungraceful !" repeated Mrs. Jarvis,
bitterly; "I do not know that you are at all more
bustling and ungraceful than Mr. Effingham himself."

" No, my dear, I am a quiet, unpretending man, like
the great majority of my countrymen, thank God."

" Then why talk of these sorts of differences in a
country in which the law establishes none ?"

" For precisely the reason that I talk of the river
at the foot of this street, or because there is a river.
A thing may exist without there being a law for it.
There is no law for building this house, and yet it is
built. There is no law for making Dr. Verse a better
preacher than Dr. Prolix, and yet he is a much better
preacher ; neither is there any law for making Mr.
Effingham a more finished gentleman than I happen to
be, and yet I am not fool enough to deny the fact. In
the way of making out a bill of parcels, I will not
turn my back to him, I can promise you."

" All this strikes me as being very spiritless, and as
particularly anti-republican," said Mrs. Jarvis, rising
to quit the room ; " and if the Effinghams do not come
this evening, I shall not enter their house this winter.
I am sure they have no right to pretend to be our bet
ters, and I feel no disposition to admit the impudent
claim."

" Before you go, Jane, let me say a parting word,"
rejoined the husband, looking for his hat, " which is
just this. If you wish the world to believe you the
equal of any one, no matter whom, do not be always
talking about it, lest they see you distrust the fact

HOME AS FOUND. 55

yourself. A positive thing will surely be seen, and
they who have the highest claims are the least disposed
to be always pressing them on the attention of the
world. An outrage may certainly be done those so
cial rights which have been established by common
consent, and then it may be proper to resent it ; but
beware betraying a consciousness of your own infe
riority, by letting every one see you are jealous of
your station. Now, kiss me ; here is the money to pay
ibr your finery this evening, and let me see you as
happy to receive Mrs. Jewett from Albion Place, as
you would be to receive Mrs. Hawker herself."

" Mrs. Hawker !" cried the wife, with a toss of her
head, " I would not cross the street to invite Mrs.
Hawker and all her clan." Which wras very true, as
Mrs. Jarvis was thoroughly convinced the trouble
would be unavailing, the lady in question being as near
the head of fashion in New-York, as it was possible
to be in a town that, in a moral sense, resembles an
encampment, quite as much as it resembles a perma
nent and a long-existing capital.

Notwithstanding a great deal of management on the
part of Mrs. Jarvis to get showy personages to attend
her entertainment, the simple elegance of the two car
riages that bore the Effingham party, threw all the
other equipages into the shade. The arrival, indeed,
was deemed a matter of so much moment, that intel
ligence was conveyed to the lady, who was still at her
post in the inner drawing-room, of the arrival of a
party altogether superior to any thing that had yet
appeared in her rooms. It is true, this was not ex
pressed in words, but it was made sufficiently obvious
by the breathless haste and the air of importance of
Mrs. Jarvis' sister, who had received the news from a
servant, and who communicated it propria persona to
the mistress of the house.

The simple, useful, graceful, almost indispensable
usage of announcing at the door, indispensable to those

56 HOME AS FOUND.

who receive much, and where there is the risk of
meeting people known to us by name and not in per
son, is but little practised in America. Mrs. Jarvis
would have shrunk from such an innovation, had she
known that elsewhere the custom prevailed, but she
was in happy ignorance on this point, as on many
others that were more essential to the much-coveted
social eclat at which she aimed. When Mademoiselle
Viefville appeared, therefore, walking unsupported, as
if she were out of leading-strings, followed by Eve
and Grace and the gentlemen of their party, she at
first supposed there was some mistake, and that her
visiters had got into the wrong house ; there being an
opposition party in the neighbourhood.

" What brazen people ! " whispered Mrs. Abijah
Gross, who having removed from an interior New-
England village, fully two years previously, fancied
herself an fait of all the niceties of breeding and social
tact. " There are positively two young ladies actually
walking about without gentlemen !"

But it was not in the power of Mrs. Abijah Gross,
with her audible whisper and obvious sneer and laugh,
to put down two such lovely creatures as Eve and her
cousin. The simple elegance of their attire, the inde
scribable air of polish, particularly in the former, and
the surpassing beauty and modesty of mien of both,
effectually silenced criticism, after this solitary out
breaking of vulgarity. Mrs. Jarvis recognized Eve
and John Effingnam, and her hurried compliments and
obvious delight proclaimed to all near her, the import
ance she attached to their visit. Mademoiselle Viefville
she had not recollected in her present dress, and even
she was covered with expressions of delight and satis
faction.

" I wish particularly to present to you a friend that
we all prize exceedingly," said Eve, as soon as there
was an opportunity of speaking. " This is Captain
Truck, the gentleman who commands the Montauk,

HOME AS FOUND. 57

the ship of which you have heard so much. Ah ! Mr.
Jarvis," offering a hand to him with sincere cordiality,
for Eve had known him from childhood, and always
sincerely respected him — " you will receive my friend
with a cordial welcome, I am certain."

She then explained to Mr. Jarvis who the honest
captain was, when the former, first paying the proper
respect to his other guests, led the old sailor aside, and
began an earnest conversation on the subject of the
recent passage.

John Effingham presented the baronet, whom Mrs.
Jarvis, out of pure ignorance of his rank in his own
country, received with perfect propriety and self-
respect.

" We have very few people of note in town at pre
sent, I believe," said Mrs. Jarvis to John Effingham.
"A great traveller, a most interesting man, is the only
person of that sort I could obtain for this evening, and
I shall have great pleasure in introducing you. He is
there in that crowd, for he is in the greatest possible
demand ; he has seen so much. — Mrs. Snow, with your
permission — really the ladies are thronging about him
as if he were a Pawnee, — have the goodness to step a
little this way, Mr. Effingham — Miss Effingham — Mrs.
Snow, just touch his arm and let him know I wish to
introduce a couple of friends. — Mr. Dodge, Mr. John
Effingham, Miss Effingham, Miss Van Cortlandt. I
hope you may succeed in getting him a little^o your
selves, ladies, for he can tell you all about Europe —
saw the king of France riding out to Nully, and has a
prodigious knowledge of things on the other side of the
water."

It required a good deal of Eve's habitual self-com
mand to prevent a smile, but she had the tact and dis
cretion to receive Steadfast as an utter stranger. John
Effingham bowed as haughtily as man can bow, and
then it was whispered that he and Mr. Dodge were
rival travellers. The distance of the former, coupled

58 HOME AS FOUND.

with an expression of countenance that did not invite
familiarity, drove nearly all the company over to the
side of Steadfast, who, it was soon settled, had seen
much the most of the world, understood society the
best, and had moreover travelled as far as Timbuctoo
in Africa. The clientele of Mr. Dodge increased
rapidly, as these reports spread in the rooms, and those
who had not read the " delightful letters published in
the Active Inquirer," furiously envied those who had
enjoyed that high advantage.

" It is Mr. Dodge, the great traveller," said one
young lady, who had extricated herself from the crowd
around the 'lion,' and taken a station near Eve and
Grace, and who, moreover, was a * blue' in her own
set; "his beautiful and accurate descriptions have
attracted great attention in England, and it is said they
have actually been republished !"

" Have you read them, Miss Brackett ?" *

" Not the letters themselves, absolutely ; but all the
remarks on them in the last week's Hebdomad. Most
delightful letters, judging from those remarks ; full of
nature and point, and singularly accurate in all their
facts. In this respect they are invaluable, travellers
do fall into such extraordinary errors !"

" I hope, ma'am," said John Effingham, gravely,
" that the gentleman has avoided the capital mistake
of commenting on things that actually exist. Com
ments o<frits facts are generally esteemed by the people
of a country, impertinent and unjust; and your true
way to succeed, is to treat as freely as possible its
imaginary peculiarities."

Miss Brackett had nothing to answer to this obser
vation, the Hebdomad having, among its other pro
fundities, never seen proper to touch on the subject.
She went on praising the " Letters," however, not one of
which had she read, or would she read ; for this young
lady had contrived to gain a high reputation in her
own coterie for taste and knowledge in books, by

HOME AS FOUND. 59

merely skimming the strictures of those who do not
even skim the works they pretend to analyze.

Eve had never before been in so close contact with
so much flippant ignorance, and she could not but won
der at seeing a man like her kinsman overlooked, in
order that a man like Mr. Dodge should be preferred.
&11 this gave John Effingham himself no concern, but
retiring a little from the crowd, he entered into a short
conversation with the young baronet.

" I should like to know your real opinions of this
set," he said ; " not that I plead guilty to the childish
sensibility that is so common in all provincial circles
to the judgments of strangers, but with a view to aid
you in forming a just estimate of the real state of the
country."

" As I know the precise connexion between you and
our host, there can be no objection to giving a per
fectly frank reply. The women strike me as being
singularly delicate and pretty; well dressed, too, I
might add ; but, while there is a great air of decency,
there is very little high finish ; and what strikes me as
being quite odd, under such circumstances, scarcely
any downright vulgarity, or coarseness."

" A Daniel come to judgment ! One who had passed
a life here, would not have come so near the truth,
simply because he would not have observed peculiari
ties, that require the means of comparison to be
detected. You are a little too indulgent in saying
there is no downright vulgarity ; for some there is ;
though surprisingly little for the circumstances. But
of the coarseness that would be so prominent else
where, there is hardly any. True, so great is the
equality in all things, in this country, so direct the
tendency to this respectable mediocrity, that what you
now see here, to-night, may be seen in almost every
village in the land, with a few immaterial exceptions
in the way of furniture and other city appliances, and
not much even in these."

60 HOME AS FOUND.

"Certainly, as a mediocrity, this is respectable,
thonsfh a fastidious taste might see a multitude of
faults."

" I shall not say that the taste would be merely fas
tidious, for much is wanting that would add to the
grace and beauty of society, while much that is
wanting \vould be missed only by the over-sophisti
cated. Those young men, who are sniggering over
some bad joke in the corner, for instance, are posi
tively vulgar, as is that young lady who is indulging
in practical coquetry ; but, on the whole, there is little
of this ; and, even our hostess, a silly woman, devoured
with the desire of being what neither her social posi
tion, education, habits nor notions fit her to be, is less
obtrusive, bustling, and offensive, than a similar person,
elsewhere."

" I am quite of your way of thinking, and intended
to ask you to account for it."

" The Americans are an imitative people of neces
sity, and they are apt at this part of imitation, in par
ticular. Then they are less artificial in all their prac
tices, than older and more sophisticated nations ; and
this company has got that essential part of good
breeding, simplicity, as it were per force. A step
higher in the social scale, you will see less of it ; for
greater daring and bad models lead to blunders in
matters that require to be exceedingly well done, if
done at all. The faults here would be more apparent,
by an approach near enough to get into the tone of
mind, the forms of speech, and the attempts at wit."

" Which I think we shall escape to-night, as I see
the ladies are already making their apologies and
taking leave. We must defer this investigation to
another time."

" It may be indefinitely postponed, as it would
scarcely reward the trouble of an inquiry."

The gentlemen now approached Mrs. Jarvis, paid
their parting compliments, hunted up Captain Truck,

HOME AS FOUND. 61

whom they tore by violence from the good-natured

hospitality of the master of the house, and then saw
the ladies into .their carriage. As they drove off, the
worthy mariner protested that Mr. Jarvis was one of
the honestest men he had ever met, and announced
that he intended giving him a dinner on board the
Montauk, the very next day.

The dwelling of Mrs. Hawker was in Hudson
Square ; or in a portion of the city that the lovers of
the grandiose are endeavouring to call St. John's
Park; for it is rather an amusing peculiarity among a
certain portion of the emigrants who have flocked into
the Middle States, within the last thirty years, that
they are not satisfied with permitting any family, or
thing, to possess the name it originally enjoyed, if there
exists the least opportunity to change it. There was
but a carriage or twro before the door, though the
strong lights in the house showed that company had
collected.

" Mrs. Hawker is the widow and the daughter of
men of long established New-York families ; she is
childless, affluent, and universally respected where
known, for her breeding, benevolence, good sense,
and heart," said John EiHngham, while the party was
driving from one house to the other. " Were you to
go into most of the sets of this town, and mention
Mrs. Hawker's name, not one person in ten would
know there is such a being in their vicinity ; the pele
mete of a migratory population keeping persons of her
character and condition in life, quite out of view.
The very persons who will prattle by the hour, of the
establishments of Mrs. Peleg Pond, and Mrs. Jonah
Twist, and Mrs. Abiram Wattles, people who first
appeared on this island five or six years since, and,
who having accumulated what to them are relatively
large fortunes, have launched out into vulgar and
uninstructed finery, would look with surprise at hear
ing Mrs. Hawker mentioned as one having any claims

VOL. I. 6

62 HOME AS FOUND.

to social distinction. Her historical names are over
shadowed in their minds by the parochial glories of
certain local prodigies in the townships whence they
emigrated ; her manners would puzzle the comprehen
sion of people whose imitation has not gone beyond
the surface, and her polished and simple mind would
find little sympathy among a class who seldom rise
above a common-place sentiment without getting upon
stilts."

" Mrs. Hawker, then, is a lady," observed Sir George
Tern pie mo re.

" Mrs. Hawker is a lady, in every sense of the word ;
by position, education, manners, association, mind, for
tune and birth. I do not know that we ever had more
of her class than exist to-day, but certainly we once
had them more prominent in society."

" I suppose, sir," said Captain Truck, " that this Mrs.
Hawker is of what is called the old school 1"

" Of a very ancient school, and one that is likely to
continue, though it may not be generally attended."

" I am afraid, Mr. John Effingham, that I shall be
like a fish out of water in such a house. I can get
along very well with your Mrs. Jarvis, and with the
dear young lady in the other carriage ; but the sort of
woman you have described, will be apt to jam a plain
mariner like myself. What in nature should I do, nowr,
if she should ask me to dance a minuet 1"

" Dance it agreeably to the laws of nature," returned
John Effingham, as the carriages stopped.

A respectable, quiet, and an aged black admitted the
party, though even he did not announce the visiters,
while he held the door of the drawing-room open for
them, with respectful attention. Mrs. Hawker arose,
and advanced to meet Eve and her companions, and,
though she kissed the cousins affectionately, her recep
tion of Mademoiselle Viefville was so simply polite as
to convince the latter she was valued on account of
her services. John Effingham, who was ten or fifteen

HOME AS FOUND. 63

years the junior of the old lady, gallantly kissed her
hand, when he presented his two male companions.
After paying the proper attention to the greatest stran
ger, Mrs. Hawker turned to Captain Truck and said—

" This, then, is the gentleman to whose skill and
courage you all owe so much — we all owe so much, I
might better have said — the commander of the Mon-
tauk ?"

"I have the honour of commanding that vessel,
ma'am," returned Captain Truck, who wras singularly
awed by the dignified simplicity of his hostess, although
her quiet, natural, and yet finished manner, which ex
tended even to the intonation of the voice, and the
smallest movement, were as unlike what he had ex
pected as possible ; " and with such passengers as she
had last voyage I can only say, it is a pity that she is
not better off for one to take care of her."

" Your passengers give a different account of the
matter, but, in order that I may judge impartially, do
me the favour to take this chair, and let me learn a few
of the particulars from yourself."

Observing that Sir George Templemore had followed
Eve to the other side of the room, Mrs. Hawker now
resumed her seat, and, without neglecting any to at
tend to one in particular, or attending to one in a way
to make him feel oppressed, she contrived, in a few
minutes, to make the captain forget all about the minuet,
and to feel much more at his ease than would have
been the case with Mrs. Jarvis, in a month's inter
course.

In the mean time, Eve had crossed the room to join
a lady whose smile invited her to her side. This was
a young, slightly framed female, of a pleasing counte
nance, but who would not have been particularly dis
tinguished, in such a place, for personal charms. Still,
her smile was sweet, her eyes were soft, and the ex
pression of her face was what might almost be called
illuminated. As Sir George Templemore followed her,

64 HOME AS FOUND.

Eve mentioned his name to her acquaintance, whom
she addressed as Mrs. Bloomfield.

" You are bent on perpetrating further gaiety to
night," said the latter, glancing at the ball-dresses of
the two cousins ; " are you in the colours of the Hous
ton faction, or in those of the Peabody."

" Not in pea-green, certainly," returned Eve, laugh
ing — " as you may see ; but in simple white."

"You intend then to be 'led a measure' at Mrs.
Houston's. It were more suitable than among the
other faction."

" Is fashion, then, faction, in New- York ?" inquired
Sir George.

" Fractions would be a better word, perhaps. But
we have parties in almost every thing, in America ; in
politics, religion, temperance, speculations, and taste ;
why not in fashion ?"

" I fear we are not quite independent enough to form
parties on such a subject," said Eve.

" Perfectly well said, Miss Effingham ; one must
think a little originally, let it be ever so falsely, in order
to get up a fashiofi. I fear we shall have to admit our
insignificance on this point. You are a late arrival,
Sir George Templemore ?"

" As lately as the commencement of this month; I
had the honour of being a fellow-passenger with Mr.
Effingham and his family."

'/ In which voyage you suffered shipwreck, captivity,
and famine, if half we hear be true."

'* Report has a little magnified our risks ; we en
countered some serious dangers, but nothing amount
ing to the sufferings you have mentioned."

"Being a married woman, and having passed the
crisis in which deception is not practised, I -expect to
hear truth again," said Mrs. Bloomfield, smiling. " I
trust, however, you underwent enough to qualify you
all for heroes and heroines, and shall content myself
with knowing that you are here, safe and happy — if,''

HOME AS FOUND. 05

she added, looking inquiringly at Eve, "one who has
been educated abroad can be happy at home."

"One educated abroad may be happy at home,
though possibly not in the modes most practised by the
world," said Eve, firmly.

" YVithout an opera, without a court, almost without
society !"

" An opera would be desirable, I confess ; of courts
I know nothing, unmarried females being cyphers in
Europe; and I hope better things than to think I shall
be without society."

" Unmarried females are considered cyphers too,
here, provided there be enough of them with a good
respectable digit at their head. I assure you no one
quarrels with the cyphers under such circumstances.
I think, Sir George Templemore, a town like this must
be something of a paradox to you."

" Might I venture to inquire the reason for this
opinion !"

" Merely because it is neither one thing nor ano
ther. Not a capital, nor yet merely a provincial place ;
with something more than commerce in its bosom, and
yet with that something hidden under a bushel. A
good deal more than Liverpool, and a good deal less
than London. Better even than Edinburgh, in many
respects, and worse than Wapping, in others."

" You have been abroad, Mrs. Bloomfield ?"

" Not a foot out of my own country ; scarcely a foot
out of my own state. I have been at Lake George,
the Falls, and the Mountain House ; and, as one does
not travel in a balloon, I saw some of the intermediate
places. As for all else, I am obliged to go by report."

" It is a pity Mrs. Bloomfield was not with us, this
evening, at Mrs. Jarvis's," said Eve, laughing. "She
might then have increased her knowledge, by listening
to a few cantos from the epic of Mr. Dodge."

" I have glanced at some of that author's wisdom,"
returned Mrs. Bloomfield, " but I soon found it was
6*

66 HOME AS FOUND.

learning backwards. There is a never-failing rule, by
which it is 'easy to arrive at a traveller's worth, in a
negative sense, at least."

" That is a rule which may be worth knowing,"
said the baronet, " as it would save much useless wear
of the eyes."

"When one betrays a profound ignorance of his
own country, it is a fair presumption that he cannot be
very acute in his observation of strangers. Mr. Dodge
is one of these writers, and a single letter fully satis
fied my curiosity. I fear, Miss Effingham, very infe
rior wares, in the way of manners, have been lately
imported, in large quantities, into this country, as
having the Tower mark on them."

Eve laughed, but declared that Sir George Tem-
plemore was better qualified than herself to answer
such a question.

** We are said to be a people of facts, rather than
a people of theories," continued Mrs. Bloomfield,
without attending to the reference of the young lady,
" and any coin that offers passes, until another that is
better, arrives. It is a singular, but a very general
mistake, I believe, of the people of this country, in
supposing that they can exist under the present regime,
when others would fail, because their opinions keep
even pace with, or precede the actual condition of so
ciety; whereas, those who have thought and observed
most on such subjects, agree in thinking the very re
verse to be the case."

" This would be a curious condition for a govern
ment so purely conventional," observed Sir George,
with interest, " and it certainly is entirely opposed to
the state of things all over Europe."

" It is so, and yet there is no great mystery in it,
after all. Accident has liberated us from trammels
that still fetter you. We are like a vehicle on the top
of a hill, which, the moment it is pushed beyond the
point of resistance, rolls down of itself, without the aid

HOME AS FOUPfD. 67

of horses. One may follow with the team, and hook
on when it gets to the bottom, but there is no such
thing as keeping company with it until it arrives
there."

" You will allow, then, that there is a bottom ?"

" There is a bottom to every thing — to good and
bad ; happiness and misery ; hope, fear, faith and
charity ; even to a woman's mind, which I have some
times fancied the most bottomless thing in nature.
There may, therefore, well be a bottom even to the
institutions of America."

Sir George listened with the interest with which an
Englishman of his class always endeavours to catch a
concession that he fancies is about to favour his own
political predilections, and he felt encouraged to push
the subject further.

" And you think the political machine is rolling
downwards towards this bottom I" he said, with an in
terest in the answer that, living in the quiet and forget-
fulness of his own home, he would have laughed at
himself for entertaining. But our sensibilities become
quickened by collision, and opposition is known even
to create love.

Mrs. Bloomfield was quick-witted, intelligent, culti
vated and shrewd. She saw the motive at a glance,
and, notwithstanding she saw and felt all its abuses,
strongly attached to the governing principle of her
country's social organization, as is almost universally
the case with the strongest minds and most generous
hearts of the nation, she was not disposed to let a
stranger carry away a false impression of her senti
ments on such a point.

" Did you ever study logic, Sir George Temple-
more'?" she asked, archly.

" A little, though not enough I fear to influence my
mode of reasoning, or even to leave me familiar with
he terms."

" Oh ! I am not about to assail you with sequiturs

68 HOME AS FOUND.

and non sequiturs, dialectics and all the mysteries of
Denk-Lehre, but simply to remind you there is such a
thing as the bottom of a subject. When I tell you we
are flying towards the bottom of our institutions, it is
in the intellectual sense, and not, as you have errone
ously imagined, in an unintellectual sense. I mean
that we are getting to understand them, which, I fear,
we did not absolutely do at the commencement of the
* experiment.' "

" But I think you will admit, that as the civilization
of the country advances, some material changes must
occur ; your people cannot always remain stationary ;
they must either go backwards or forward."

" Up or down, if you will allow me to correct your
phraseology. The civilization of the country, in one
sense at least, is retrogressive, and the people, as they
cannot go ' up,' betray a disposition to go * down.' "

" You deal in enigmas, and I am afraid to think I
understand you."

" I mean, merely, that gallowses are fast disappear
ing, and that the people — le peuple you will understand
• — begin to accept money. In both particulars, I think
there is a sensible change for the worse, within my
own recollection."

Mrs. Bloomfield then changed her manner, and from
using that light-hearted gaiety with which she often
rendered her conversation piquante, and even occa
sionally brilliant, she became more grave and explicit.
The subject soon turned to that of punishments, and
few men could have reasoned more sensibly, justly or
forcibly, on such a subject, than this slight and fragile-
looking young woman. Without the least pedantry,
with a beauty of language that the other sex seldom
attains, and with a delicacy of discrimination, and a
sentiment that wrere strictly feminine, she rendered a
theme interesting, that, however important in itself, is
forbidding, veiling all its odious and revolting features
in the refinement and finesse of her own polished
mind.

HOME AS FOUND. 69

Eve could have listened all night, and, at every syl
lable that fell from the lips of her friend, she felt a glow
of triumph; for she \vas proud of letting an intelligent
foreigner see that America did contain women worthy
to be ranked with the best of other countries, a cir
cumstance that they who merely frequented what is
called the world, she thought might be reasonably jus
tified in distrusting. In one respect, she even fancied
Mrs. Bloomfield's knowledge and cleverness superior
to those which she had so often admired in her own
sex abroad. It was untrammelled, equally by the pre
judices incident to a factitious condition of society, or
by their reaction ; two circumstances that often ob
scured the sense and candour of those to whom she had
so often listened with pleasure in other countries. The
singularly feminine tone, too, of all that Mrs. Bloom-
field said or thought, wrhile it lacked nothing in strength,
added to the charm of her conversation, and increased
the pleasure of those that listened.

" Is the circle large to which Mrs. Hawker and her
friends belong?" asked Sir George, as he assisted Eve
and Grace to cloak, when they had taken leave. " A
town which can boast of half-a-dozen such houses need
not accuse itself of wanting society."

" Ah ! there is but one Mrs. Hawker in New- York,'*
answered Grace, " and not many Mrs. Bloomfields in
the world. It would be too much to say, we have
even half-a-dozen such houses."

" Have you not been struck with the admirable tone
of this drawing-room," half whispered Eve. " It may
want a littte of that lofty ease that one sees among the
better portion of the old Princesses et Duchesses, which
is a relic of a school that, it is to be feared, is going
out ; but in its place there is a winning nature, with as
much dignity as is necessary, and a truth that gives
us confidence in the sincerity of those around us."

" Upon my word, I think Mrs. Hawker quite fit fof
a Duchess."

70 HOME AS FOUND.

" You mean a Duchesse" said Eve, " and yet she is
without the manner that we understand by such a
word. Mrs. Hawker is a lady, and there can be no
higher term."

" She is a delightful old woman," cried John Effing-
ham, " and if twenty years younger and disposed to
change her condition, I should really be afraid to enter
the house."

" My dear sir," put in the captain, " I will make her
Mrs. Truck to-morrow, and say nothing of years, if
she could be content to take up with such an offer.
Why, sir, she is no woman, but a saint in petticoats !
I felt the whole time as if talking to my own mother,
and as for ships, she knows more about them than I
do!"

The whole party laughed at the strength of the cap
tain's admiration, and getting into the carriages pro
ceeded to the last of the houses they intended visiting
that night.

CHAPTER V.

" So turns she every man the wrong side out ;
And never gives to truth and virtue, that
Which simpleness and merit purchaseth."

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

MRS. HOUSTON was what is termed a fashionable
woman in New-York. She, too, was of a family of
local note, though of one much less elevated in the
olden time than that of Mrs. Hawker. Still her claims
were admitted by the most fastidious on such points,
for a few do remain who think descent indisputable to
gentility ; and as her means were ample, and her tastes
perhaps superior to those of most around her, she kept
what was thought a house of better tone than corn-

HOME AS FOUND. 71

mon, even in the highest circle. Eve had but a slight
acquaintance with her ; but in Grace's eyes, Mrs. Hous
ton's was the place of all others that she thought might
make a favourable impression on her cousin. Her
wish that this should prove to be the case was so
strong, that, as they drove towards the door, she could
not forbear from making an attempt to prepare Eve
for what she was to meet.

" Although Mrs. Houston has a very large house for
New- York, and lives in a uniform style, you are not
to expect ante-chambers, and vast suites of rooms,
Eve," said Grace ; " such as you have been accus
tomed to see abroad."

" It is not necessary, my dear cousin, to enter a
house of four or five windows in front, to see it is not
a house of twenty or thirty. I should be very unrea
sonable to expect an Italian palazzo, or a Parisian
hotel, in this good town."

" We are not old enough for that yet, Eve ; a hun
dred years hence, Mademoiselle Viefville, such things
may exist here."

" Bien sur. C'est naturel"

" A hundred years hence, as the world tends, Grace,
they are not likely to exist any where, except as
taverns, or hospitals, or manufactories. But what
have we to do, coz, with a century ahead of us 1 young
as we both are, we cannot hope to live that time."

Grace would have been puzzled to account satisfac
torily to herself, for the strong desire she felt that nei
ther of her companions should expect to see such a
house a.s their senses so plainly told them did not
exist in the place ; but her foot moved in the bottom
of the carriage, for she was not half satisfied with her
cousin's answer.

" All I mean, Eve," she said, after a pause, " is, that
one ought not to expect in a town as new as this, the
improvements that one sees in an older state of
society."

^2 HOME AS FOUND.

And have Mademoiselle Viefville, or I, ever been
so weak as to suppose that New-York is Pans, or
Rome, or Vienna?"

Grace was still less satisfied, fer, unknown to her
self, she had hoped that Mrs. Houston's ball might be
quite equal to a ball in either of those ancient capitals ;
and she was now vexed^ that her cousin considered
it so much a matter of course that it should not be.
But there was no time for explanations, as the carriage
now stopped.

The noise, confusion, calling out, swearing, and rude
clamour before the house of Mrs. Houston, said little for
the out-door part of the arrangements. Coachmen are
nowhere a particularly silent and civil class; but the
uncouth European peasants, who have been preferred
to the honours of the whip in New-York, to the usual
feelings of competition and contention, added that par
ticular feature of humility which is known to distin
guish " the beggar on horseback." The imposing
equipages of our party, however, had that effect on
most of these rude brawlers, which a display of wealth
is known to produce on the vulgar-minded ; and the
ladies got into the house, through a lane of coachmen,
by yielding a little to a chevau de frise of whips, with
out any serious calamity.

" One hardly knows which is the most terrific," said
Eve, involuntarily, as soon as the door closed on them
— " the noise within, or the noise without !"

This was spoken rapidly, and in French, to Made
moiselle Viefville, but Grace heard and understood it,
and for the first time in her life, she perceived that
Mrs. Houston's company was not composed of night
ingales. The surprise is that the discovery should
have come so late.

" I am delighted at having got into this house," said
Sir George, who, having thrown his cloak to his own
servant, stood with the two other gentlemen waiting
the descent of the ladies from the upper room, where

HOME AS FOUND. 73

the bad arrangements of the house compelled them to
uncloak and to put aside their shawls, " as I am told it
is the best house in town to see the other sex."

" To hear them, would be nearer the truth, perhaps,'*
returned John Effingham. " As for pretty women, one
can hardly go amiss in New-York; and your ears
now tell you, that they do not come into the world to
be seen only."

The baronet smiled, but he was too well bred to
contradict or to assent. Mademoiselle Viefville, un
conscious that she was violating the proprieties, walked
into the rooms by herself, as soon as she descended,
followed by Eve; but Grace shrank to the side of
John Effingham, whose arm she took as a step neces
sary even to decorum.

Mrs. Houston received her guests with ease and
dignity. She was one of those females that the Ame
rican world calls gay ; in otherwords, she opened her
own house to a very promiscuous society, ten or a
dozen times in a winter, and accepted the greater part
of the invitations she got to other people's. Still, in
most other countries, as a fashionable woman, she
would have been esteemed a model of devotion to the
duties of a wife and a mother, for she paid a personal
attention to her household, and had actually taught all
her children the Lord's prayer, the creed, and the ten
commandments. She attended church twice every
Sunday, and only staid at home from the evening lec
tures, that the domestics might have the opportunity
of going (which, by the way, they never did) in her
stead. Feminine, well-mannered, rich, pretty, of a
very positive social condition, and naturally kind-heart
ed and disposed to sociability, Mrs. Houston, supported
by an indulgent husband, who so much loved to see
people with the appearance of happiness, that he was
not particular as to the means, had found no difficulty
in rising to the pinnacle of fashion, and of having her
name in the mouths of all those who find it necessary

VOL. I. 7

74 HOME AS TOUND.

to talk of somebodies, in order that they may seem to
be somebodies themselves. All this contributed to
Mrs. Houston's happiness, or she fancied it did ; and
as every passion is known to increase by indulgence,
she had insensibly gone on in her much-envied career,
until, as has just been said, she reached the summit.

" These rooms are very crowded," said Sir George,
glancing his eyes around two very pretty little narrow
drawing-rooms, that \vere beautifully, not to say richly,
furnished ; " one wonders that the same contracted
style of building should be so very general, in a town
that increases as rapidly as this, and where fashion has
no fixed abode, and land is so abundant."

"Mrs. Bloomfidd would tell you," said Eve, "that
these houses are types of the social state of the coun
try, in which no one is permitted to occupy more than
his share of ground."

" But there are reasonably large dwellings in the
place. Mrs. Hawker has a good house, and your fa
ther's for instance, would be thought so, too, in London
even ; and yet I fancy you will agree with me in think
ing that a good room is almost unknown in New-York."

" I do agree with you, in this particular, certainly,
for to meet with a good room, one must go into the
houses built thirty years ago. We have inherited these
snuggeries, however, England not having much to
boast of in the way of houses."

" In the way of town residences, I agree with you
entirely, as a whole, though we have some capital ex
ceptions. Still, I do not think we are quite as compact
as this — do you not fancy the noise increased in con
sequence of its being so confined?"

Eve laughed and shook her head quite positively.

" What would it be if fairly let out !" she said. " But
we will not waste the precious moments, but turn our
eyes about us in quest of the belles. Grace, you whc
are so much at home, must be our cicerone, and tell
us which are the idols we are to worship."

HOME AS FOUND. 75

" Dites moi premierement ; que veut dire une belle ti
New- York?" demanded Mademoiselle Viefville.
paremment, tout le monde estjoli."

" A belle, Mademoiselle," returned John Effingham,
" is not necessarily beautiful, the qualifications for the
character, being various and a little contradictory.
One may be a belle by means of money, a tongue, an
eye, a foot, teeth, a laugh, or any other separate feature,
or grace ; though no woman was ever yet a belle, I
believe, by means of the head, considered collectively.
But why deal in description, when the thing itself con
fronts us ? The young lady standing directly before us,
is a belle of the most approved stamp and silvery tone.
Is it not Miss Ring, Grace ?"

The answer was in the affirmative, and the eyes of
the whole party turned towards the subject of this
remark. The young lady in question was about
twenty, rather tall for an American \voman, not con
spicuously handsome, but like most around her of
delicate features and frame, and with such a physique,
as, under proper training, would have rendered her the
beau ideal of feminine delicacy and gentleness. She
had natural spirit, likewise, as appeared in her clear
blue eye, and moreover she had the spirit to be a belle.

Around this young creature were clustered no less
than five young men, dressed in the height of the
fashion, all of whom seemed to be entranced with the
words that fell from her lips, and each of whom appeared
anxious to say something clever in return. They all
laughed, the lady most, and sometimes all spoke at
once. Notwithstanding these outbreakings, Miss Ring
did most of the talking, and once or twice, as a young
man would gape after a most exhilarating show of
merriment, and discover an inclination to retreat, she
managed to recall him to nis allegiance, by some
remark particularly pertinent to himself, or his feelings.

" Qui est cette dame?" asked Mademoiselle Viefviile,
very much as one would put a similar question, on

76 HOME AS FOUND.

seeing a man enter a church during service with his
hat on.

" Elle est demoiselle" returned Eve.

" Quelle horreur /"

" Nay, nay, Mademoiselle, I shall not allow you to
set up France as immaculate on this point, neither — "
said John Effingham, looking at the last speaker with
an affected frown — "A young lady may have a tongue,
and she may even speak to a young gentleman, and
not be guilty of felony ; although I will admit that five
tongues are unnecessary, and that five listeners are
more than sufficient, for the wisdom of twenty in pet
ticoats."

" C'est une horreur /"

" I dare say Miss Ring would think it a greater
horror to be obliged to pass an evening in a row of
girls, unspoken to, except to be asked to dance, and
admired only in the distance. But let us take seats on
that sofa, and then we may go beyond the pantomime,
and become partakers in the sentiment of the scene."

Grace and Eve were now led off to dance, and the
others did as John Effingham had suggested. In the
eyes of the belle and her admirers, they who had
passed thirty were of no account, and our listeners
succeeded in establishing themselves quietly within
ear-shot — this was almost at duelling distance, too,
— without at all interrupting the regular action of the
piece. We extract a little of the dialogue, by way of
giving a more dramatic representation of the scene.

" Do you think the youngest Miss Danvers beauti
ful ?" asked the belle, while her eye wandered in quest
of a sixth gentleman to "entertain," as the phrase is.
" In my opinion, she is absolutely the prettiest female
in Mrs. Houston's rooms this night."

The young men, one and all, protested against this
judgment, and with perfect truth, for Miss Ring was
too original to point out charms that every one could
see.

HOME AS FOUND. 77

" They say it will not be a match between her and
Mr. Egbert, after every body has supposed it settled
so long. What is your opinion, Mr. Edson?"

This timely question prevented Mr. Edson's retreat,
for he had actually got so far in this important evolu
tion, as to have gaped and turned his back. Recalled,
as it were by the sound of the bugle, Mr. Edson was
compelled to say something, a sore affliction to him
always.

" Oh ! I 'm quite of your way of thinking ; they have
certainly courted too long to think of marrying."

" I detest long courtships ; they must be perfect an
tidotes to love ; are they not, Mr. Moreland ?"

A truant glance of Mr. Moreland's eye was rebuked
by this appeal, and instead of looking for a place of
refuge, he now merely looked sheepish. He, however,
entirely agreed with the young lady, as the surer way
of getting out of the difficulty.

" Pray, Mr. Summerfield, how do you like the last
Hajjt — Miss Eve Effingham 1 To my notion, she is
prettyish, though by no means as well as her cousin,
Miss Van Cortlandt, who is really rather good-look
ing."

As Eve and Grace were the two most truly lovely
young women in the rooms, this opinion, as well as
the loud tone in which it was given, startled Made
moiselle Viefville quite as much as the subjects that
the belle had selected for discussion. She would have
moved, as listening to a conversation that was not
meant for their ears ; but John Effingham quietly as
sured her that Miss Ring seldom spoke in company
without intending as many persons as possible to hear
her.

" Miss Effingham is very plainly dressed for an only
daughter," continued the young lady, "though that
*ace of her cousin's is real point ! I '11 engage it cost
every cent of ten dollars a yard ! They are both en
gaged to be married, I hear."
7*

78 HOME AS FOUND.

" del!" exclaimed Mademoiselle Viefville,

" Oh ! That is nothing," observed John Effingham;
coolly. " Wait a moment, and you '11 hear that they
have been privately married these six months, if, in
deed, you hear no more."

" Of course this is but an idle tale ?" said Sir George
Templemore with a concern, which, in despite of his
good breeding, compelled him to put a question that,
under other circumstances, would scarcely have been
permissible.

" As true as the gospel. But listen to the bell, it is
ringing for the good of the whole parish."

" The affair between Miss Effingham and Mr. Mor-
peth, who knew her abroad, I understand is entirely
broken off; some say the father objected to Mr. Mor-
peth's want of fortune ; others that the lady was fickle,
while some accuse the gentleman of the same vice.
Don't you think it shocking to jilt, in either sex, Mr.
Mosely?"

The retiring Mr. Mosely was drawn again within
the circle, and was obliged to confess that he thought
it \vas very shocking, in either sex, to jilt.

" If I were a man," continued the belle, " I would
never think of a young woman who had once jilted a
lover. To my mind, it bespeaks a bad heart, and a
woman with a bad heart cannot make a very amiable
wife."

"What an exceedingly clever creature she is,"
whispered Mr. Mosely to Mr. Moreland, and he now
made up his mind to remain and be ' entertained' some
time longer.

" I think poor Mr. Morpeth greatly to be pitied ; for
no man would be so silly as to be attentive seriously
to a lady without encouragement. Encouragement is
the ne plus ultra of courtship ; are you not of my
opinion, Mr. Walworth?"

Mr. Walworth was number five of the entertainees,
and he did understand Latin, of which the young lady

HOME AS FOUND. 79

though fond of using scraps, knew literally nothing.
He smiled an assent, therefore, and the belle feli
citated herself in having * entertained' him effectually ;
nor was she mistaken.

"Indeed, they say Miss Effingham had several
affairs of the heart, while in Europe, but it seems she
was unfortunate in them all."

" Mais, ceci est trop fort ! Je ne peux plus ecouter."

" My dear Mademoiselle, compose yourself. The
crisis is not yet arrived, by any means."

" I understand she still corresponds with a German
Baron, and an Italian Marquis, though both engage
ments are absolutely broken off. Some people say
she walks into company alone, unsupported by any
gentleman, by way of announcing a firm determina
tion to remain single for life."

A common exclamation from the young men pro
claimed their disapprobation ; and that night three of
them actually repeated the thing, as a well established
truth, and two of the three, failing of something bet
ter to talk about, also announced that Eve was actu
ally engaged to be married.

" There is something excessively indelicate in a
young lady's moving about a room without having a
gentleman's arm to lean on ! I always feel as if such
a person was out of her place, and ought to be in the
kitchen."

" But, Miss Ring, what well-bred person does it ?"
sputtered Mr. Moreland. " No one ever heard of such
a thing in good society. 'Tis quite shocking ! Alto
gether unprecedented."

" It strikes me as being excessively coarse !"

" Oh ! manifestly ; quite rustic !" exclaimed Mr.
Ed son.

" What can possibly be mo-re vulgar ?" added Mr
Walworth.

" I never heard of such a thing among the right
sort !" said Mr. Mosely.

80 HOME AS FOUND.

" A young lady who can be so brazen as to come
into a room without a gentleman's arm to lean on, is,
in my judgment at least, but indifferently educated,
Hajji or no Hajji. Mr. Edson, have you ever felt the
tender passion 1 I know you have been desperately
in love, once, at least ; do describe to me some of the
symptoms, in order that I may know when I am seri
ously attacked myself by the disease."

" Mais, ceci est ridicule ! L? enfant s'est sauvee du
Charenton de New-York."

" From the nursery rather, Mademoiselle ; you per
ceive she does not yet know how to walk alone."

Mr. Edson now protested that he was too stupid to
feel a passion as intellectual as love, and that he was
afraid he was destined by nature to remain as insensi
ble as a block.

" One never knows, Mr. Edson," said the young la
dy, encouragingly. " Several of my acquaintances,
who thought themselves quite safe, have been seized
suddenly, and, though no-ne have actually died, more
than one has been roughly treated, I assure you."

Here the young men, one and all, protested that she
was excessively clever. Then succeeded a pause, for
Miss Ring was inviting, with her eyes, a number six to
join the circle, her ambition being dissatisfied with five
entertainees, as she saw that Miss Trumpet, a rival
belle, had managed to get exactly that number, also,
in the other room. All the gentlemen availed them
selves of the cessation in wit to gape, and Mr. Edson
took the occasion to remark to Mr. Summerfield that
he understood " lots had been sold in seven hundredth
street that morning, as high as two hundred dollars a
lot."

The quadrille now ended, and Eve returned towards
her friends. As she approached, the whole party com
pared her quiet, simple, feminine, and yet dignified air,
with the restless, beau-catching, and worldly look of
the belle, and wondered by what law of nature, or of

HOME AS FOUND. 81

fashion, the one could possibly become the subject of
the other's comments. Eve never appeared better than
that evening. Her dress had all the accuracy and fin
ish of a Parisian toilette, being equally removed from
exaggeration and neglect; and it was worn with the
ease of one accustomed to be elegantly attired, and
vet never decked with finery. Her step even was
that of a lady, having neither the mincing tread of a
Paris grisette, a manner that sometimes ascends even
to the bourgeoise, the march of a cockneyess, nor the
tiptoe swring of a belle; but it was the natural though
regulated step, of a trained and delicate woman.
Walk alone she could certainly, and always did, except
on those occasions of ceremony that demanded a part
ner. Her countenance, across which an unworthy
thought had never left a trace, was an index, too, to
the purity, high principles and womanly self-respect
that controlled all her acts, and, in these particulars,
was the very reverse of the feverish, half-hoydenish,
half-affected expression of that of Miss Ring.

" They may say what they please," muttered Cap
tain Truck, who had been a silent but wondering lis
tener of all that passed ; «* she is worth as many of
them as could be stowed in the Montauk's lower hold.'5

Miss Ring perceiving Eve approach, was desirous
of saying something to her, for there was an eclat about
a Hajji, after all, that rendered an acquaintance, or
even an intimacy desirable, and she smiled and curt
sied. Eve returned the salutation, but as she did not
care to approach a group of six, of which no less than
five were men, she continued to move towards her
own party. This reserve compelled Miss Ring to ad
vance a step or two, when Eve was obliged to stop.
Curtsying to her partner, she thanked him for his
attention, relinquished his arm, and turned to meet the
lady. At the same instant the five ' entertainees'
escaped in a body, equally rejoiced at their release, and
proud of their captivity.

82 HOME AS FOUND.

" I have been dying to come and speak to you, Miss
Effingham," commenced Miss Ring, " but these five
giants (she emphasized the word we have put in italics)
so beset me, that escape was quite impossible. There
ought to be a law that but one gentleman should speak
to a lady at a time.'5

"I thought there was such a Law already;" said
Eve, quietly.

" You mean in good breeding ; but no one thinks of
those antiquated laws now-a-days. Are you begin
ning to be reconciled, a little, to your awn country ?"

" It is not easy to effect a reconciliation where there
has been no misunderstanding. I hope I have never
quarrelled wifh my country, or my country with me."

" Oh ! it is not exactly that I mean. Cannot one
need a reconciliation without a quarrel? What do
you say to this, Mr. Edson ?"

Miss Ring having detected some symptoms of de
sertion in the gentleman addressed, had thrown in this
question by way of recal; when turning to note its
effect, she perceived that all of her dientelle had
escaped. A. look of surprise and mortification and vexa
tion it was not in her power to suppress, and then
came one of horror.

" How conspicuous we have made ourselves, and it
is all my fault !" she said, for the first time that even
ing permitting her voice to fall to a becoming tone,
" Why, here we actually are, two ladies conversing
together, and no gentleman near us !"

"Is that bemg conspicuous?" asked Eve, with a
simplicity that was entirely natural.

" I am sure, Miss Effingham, one who has seen as
much of society as you, can scarcely ask that ques
tion seriously. I do not think I have done so improper
a thing, since I was fifteen; and, dear me! dear me!
how to escape is the question. You have permitted
your partner to go, and I do not see a gentleman of
my acquaintance near us, to give me his arm !"

HOME AS FOUND. 83

* As your distress is occasioned by my company,"
said Eve, " it is fortunately in my power to relieve it."
Thus saying, she quietly walked across the room, and
took her seat next to Mademoiselle Viefville,

Miss Ring held up her hands in amazement, and
then fortunately perceiving one of the truants gaping
at no great distance, she beckoned him to her side.

" Have the goodness to give me your arm, Mr.
Summerfield," she said, "I am dying to get out of this
unpleasantly conspicuous situation; but you are the
first gentleman that has approached me this twelve
month. I would not for the world do so brazen a
thing as Miss Effingham has just achieved ; would you
believe it, she positively went from this spot to her
seat, quite alone !"

" The Hajjis are privileged."

" They make themselves so. But every body knows
how bold and unwomanly the French females are.
One could wish, notwithstanding, that our own people
would not import their audacious usages into this
country."

" It is a thousand pities that Mr. Clay, in his com
promise, neglected to make an exception against that
article. A tariff on impudence would not be at all
sectional."

" It might interfere with the manufacture at home,
notwithstanding," said John Effingham ; for the lungs
were strong, and the rooms of Mrs. Houston so small,
that little was said that evening, which was not heard
by any who chose to listen. But Miss Ring never Jis-
tened, it being no part of the vocation of a belle to
perform that inferior office, and sustained by the pro
tecting arm of Mr. Summerfield, she advanced more
boldly into the crowd, where she soon contrived to
catch another group of even six " entertainees." As
for Mr. Summerfield, he lived a twelvemonth on the
reputation of the exceedingly clever thing he had just
uttered.

84 HOME AS FOUND.

" There come Ned and Aristabulus," said John
Effingham, as soon as the tones of Miss Ring's voice
were lost in the din of fifty others, pitched to the same
key. " Jl present, Mademoiselle, je vais nous venger."

As John Effingham uttered this, he took Captain
Truck by the arm, and went to meet his cous.in and
the land agent. The latter he soon separated from
Mr. Effingham, and with this new recruit, he man
aged to get so near to Miss Ring as to attract her
attention. Although fifty, John Effingham was known
to be a bachelor, well connected, and to have twenty
thousand a year. In addition, he was well pre
served and singularly handsome, besides having an air
that set all pretending gentility at defiance. These
were qualities that no belle despised, and ilL-assorted
matches were, moreover, just coming into fashion in
New-York. Miss Ring had an intuitive knowledge
that he wished to speak to her, and she was not slow
in offering the opportunity. The superior tone of John
Effingham, his caustic wit and knowledge of the
world, dispersed the five beaux, incontinently; these
persons having a natural antipathy to every one of the
qualities named.

" I hope you will permit me to presume on an ac
quaintance that extends back as far as your grand
father, Miss Ring," he said, " to present two very in
timate friends ; Mr. Bragg and Mr. Truck ; gentlemen
who will well reward the acquaintance."

The lady bowed graciously, for it was a matter of
conscience with her to receive every man with a
smile. She was still too much in awe of the master
of ceremonies to open her batteries of attack, but John
Effingham soon relieved her, by affecting a desire to
speak to another lady. The belle had now the two
strangers to herself, and having heard that the Effing-
hams had an Englishman of condition as a companion,
who was travelling under a false name, she fancied
herself very clever in detecting him at once in the

HOME AS FOUND. 85

person of Aristabulus ; while by the aid of a lively
imagination, she thought Mr. Truck was his travelling
Mentor, and a divine of the church of England. The
incognito she was too well bred to hint at, though she
wished both the gentlemen to perceive that a belle was
not to be mystified in this easy manner. Indeed, she
was rather sensitive on the subject of her readiness in
recognizing a man of fashion under any circumstan
ces, and to let this be known was her very first object,
as soon as she was relieved from the presence of John
Effingham.

" You must be struck with the unsophisticated na
ture and the extreme simplicity of our society, Mr.
Bragg," she said, looking at him significantly ; " we
are very conscious it is not what it might be, but do
you not think it pretty well for beginners ?'

Now, Mr. Bragg had an entire consciousness that
he had never seen any society that deserved the name
before this very night, but he was supported in giving
his opinions by that secret sense of his qualifications
to fill any station, which formed so conspicuous a trait
in his character, and his answer was given with an
aplomb that would have added weight to the opinion
of the veriest elfgant of the Chaussce d'Jlntin.

" It is indeed a good deal unsophisticated," he said,
" and so simple that any body can understand it. I
find but a single fault with this entertainment, which
is, in all else, the perfection of elegance in my eyes,
and that is, that there is too little room to swing the
legs in dancing."

" Indeed ! — I did not expect that — is it not the best
usage of Europe, now, to bring a quadrille into the
very minimum of space ?"

" Quite the contrary, Miss. All good dancing re
quires evolutions. The dancing Dervishes, for instance,
\vould occupy quite as much space as both of these
sets that are walking before us, and I believe it is now

VOL. I. 8

86 HOME AS FOUND.

generally admitted that all good dancing needs room
for the legs/'

" We necessarily get a little behind the fashions, in
this distant country. Pray, sir, is it usual for ladies to
walk alone in society ?'

" Woman was not made to move through life alone,
Miss," returned Aristabulus with a sentimental glance
of the eye, for he never let a good opportunity for pre
ferment slip through his fingers, and, failing of Miss
Effingham, or Miss Van Cortlandt, of whose estates
and connections he had some pretty accurate notions,
it struck him Miss Ring might, possibly, be a very
eligible connection, as all was grist that came to his
mill ; " this I believe, is an admitted truth."

" By life you mean matrimony, I suppose."

" Yes, Miss, a man always means matrimony, when
he speaks to a young lady."

This rather disconcerted Miss Ring, \vho picked her
nosegay, for she was not accustomed to hear gentle
men talk to ladies of matrimony, but ladies to talk
to gentlemen. Recovering her self-possession, how
ever, she said with a promptitude that did the school
to which she belonged infinite credit, —

" You speak, sir, like one having experience."

" Certainly, Miss : I have been in love ever since I
was ten years old ; I may say I was born in love, and
hope to die in love."

This a little out-Heroded Herod, but the belle was
not a person to be easily daunted on such a subject.
She smiled graciously, therefore, and continued the
conversation with renewed spirit.

" You travelled gentlemen get odd notions," she said,
" and more particularly on such subjects. I always
feel afraid to discuss them with foreigners, though with
my own countrymen I have few reserves. Pray, Mr.
Truck, are you satisfied with America ? — Do you find
it the country you expected to see ?"

" Certainly, marm ;" for so they pronounced this

HOME AS FOUND. 87

word in the river, and the captain cherished his first
impressions ; " when we sailed from Portsmouth. I ex
pected that the first land we should make would be the
Highlands of Navesink ; and, although a little disap
pointed, I have had the satisfaction of laying eyes on
it at last."

" Disappointment, 1 fear, is the usual fate of those
who come from the other side. Is this dwelling of Mrs.
Houston's equal to the residence of an English noble
man, Mr. Bragg ?"

"Considerably better, Miss, especially in the way
of republican comfort."

Miss Ring, like all belles, detested the word repub
lican, their vocation being clearly to exclusion, and
she pouted a little affectedly.

" I should distrust the quality of suc-h comfort, sir,"
she said, with point ; " but, are the rooms at all com
parable with the rpoms in Apsley House, for instance?"

44 My dear Miss, Apsley House is a toll-gate lodge,
compared to this mansion ! I doubt if there be a dwell
ing in all England half as magnificent — indeed, I can
not imagine any thing more brilliant and rich."

Aristabulus was not a man to do things by halves,
and it was a point of honour with him to know some
thing of every thing. It is true he no more could tell
where Apsley House is, or whether it wras a tavern or
a gaol, than he knew half the other things on which
he delivered oracular opinions; but when it became
necessary to speak, he was not apt to balk conversa
tion from any ignorance, real or affected. The opi
nion he had just given, it is true, had a little surpassed
Miss Ring's hopes ; for the next thing, in her ambition
to being a belle, and of " entertaining" gentlemen, was
to fancy she was running her brilliant career in an or
bit of fashion that lay parallel to that of the " nobility
and gentry" of Great Britain.

" Well, this surpasses my hopes," she said, " although
I was aware we are nearly on a level with the more

88 HOME AS FOUND.

improved tastes of Europe : still, I thought we were a
little inferior to that part of the world, ye-t."

" Inferior, Miss ! That is a word that should never
pass your lips ; you are inferior to nothing, whether
in Europe or America, Asia or Africa."

As Miss Ring had been accustomed to do most of
the flattering herself, as behoveth a belle, she began to be
disconcerted with the directness of the compliments
of Aristabulus, who was disposed to i make hay while
the sun shines ;' and she turned, in a little confusion, to
the captain, by way of relief; we say confusion, for
the young lady, although so liable to be misunderstood,
was not actually impudent, but merely deceived in the
relations of things ; or, in other wrords, by some con
fusion in usages, she had hitherto permitted herself to
do that in society, which female performers sometimes
do on the stage ; enact the part of a man.

" You should tell Mr. Bragg, sir," she said, with an
appealing look at the captain, " that flattery is a dan
gerous vice, and one altogether unsuited to a Christian."

*' It is, indeed, marm, and one that I never indulge
in. No one under my orders, can accuse me of flat
tery."

By 'under orders,' Miss Ring understood curates
and deacons ; for she was aware the church of Eng
land had clerical distinctions of this sort, that are un
known in America.

" I hope, sir, you do not intend to quit this country
without favouring us with a discourse."

" Not I, marm — I am discoursing pretty much from
morning till night, when among my own people, though
I own that this conversing rather puts me out of my
reckoning. Let me get my foot on the planks I love,
with an attentive audience, and a good cigar in my
mouth, and I '11 hold forth with any bishop in the uni
verse."

" A cigar !" exclaimed Miss Ring, in surprise. " Do
gentlemen of your profession use cigars when on
dutyl"

HOME AS FOUND 89

" Does a parson take his fees ? Why, Miss, there
is not a man among us, who does not smoke from
morning till night."

" Surely not on Sundays !"

" Two for one, on those days, more than on any
other."

"And your people, sir, what do they do, all this
time ?'

" Why, marm, most of them chew ; and those that
don't, if they cannot find a pipe, have a dull time of it.
For my part, I shall hardly relish the good place itself,
if cigars are prohibited."

Miss Ring was surprised ; but she had heard that
the English clergy were more free than our own, and
then she had been accustomed to think every thing
English of the purest water. A little reflection recon
ciled her to the innovation ; and the next day, at a
dinner party, she was heard defending the usage as a
practice that had a precedent in the ancient incense of
the altar. At the moment, however, she was dying to
impart her discoveries to others ; and she kindly pro
posed to the captain and Aristabulus to introduce them
to some of her acquaintances, as they must find it dull,
being strangers, to know no one. Introductions arid
cigars were the captain's hobbies, and he accepted the
offer with joy, Aristabulus uniting cordially in the pro
position, as he fancied he had a right, under the Con
stitution of the United States of America, to be intro
duced to every human being with whom he came in
contact.

It is scarcely necessary to say how much the party
with whom the tw7o neophytes in fashion had come,
enjoyed all this, though they concealed their amuse
ment under the calm exterior of people of the world.
From Mr. Effingham the mystification was carefully
concealed by his cousin, as the former would have
felt it due to Mrs. Houston, a well-meaning, but silly
woman, to put an end to it. Eve and Grace laughed,
8*

90 HOME AS FOUND.

as merry girls would be apt to laugh, at such an oc
currence, and they danced the remainder of the eve
ning with lighter hearts than ever. At one, the com
pany retired in the same informal manner, as respects
announcements and the calling of carriages-, as that in
which they had entered; most to lay their drowsy
heads on their pillows, and Miss Ring to ponder over
the superior manners of a polished young Englishman,
and to dream of the fragrance of a sermon that was
preserved in tobacco.

CHAPTER VI.

1 Marry, our play is the most lamentable
Comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and
Thisby."

PETER QUINCE.

OUR task in the way of describing town society will
soon be ended. The gentlemen of the Effingham
family had been invited to meet Sir George Temple-
more at one or two dinners, to which the latter had
been invited in consequence of his letters, most of
wThich were connected with his pecuniary arrange
ments. As one of these entertainments was like all
the rest of the same character, a very brief account
of it will suffice to let the reader into the secret of the
excellence of the genus.

A well-spread board, excellent viands, highly re
spectable cookery, and delicious wines, were every
where met. Two rows of men clad in dark dresses,
a solitary female at the head of the table, or, if fortu
nate, with a supporter of the same sex near her, inva
riably composed the convives. The exaggerations of a
province were seen ludicrously in one particular cus
tom. The host, or perhaps it might have been the

HOME AS FOUND. 91

nostess, had been told there should be a contrast be
tween the duller light of the reception-room, and the
brilliancy of the table, and John Effingham actually hit
his legs against a stool, in floundering through the
obscurity of the first drawing-room he entered on one
of the occasions in question.

When seated at table, the first great duty of restau-
ration performed, the conversation turned on the prices
of lots, speculations in towns, or the currency. After
this came the regular assay of wines, during which it
was easy to fancy the master of the house a dealer,
for he usually sat either sucking a syphon or flourish
ing a cork-screw. The discourse would now have
done credit to the annual meeting and dinner of the
German exporters, assembled at Rudesheim to bid for
the article.

Sir George was certainly on the point of forming a
very erroneous judgment concerning the country,
when Mr. Effingham extricated him from this set, and
introduced him -properly into his own. Here, indeed,
while there was much to strike a European as pecu
liar, and even provincial, the young baronet fared
much better. He met with the same quality of table,
relieved by an intelligence that was always respecta
ble, and a manliness of tone which, if not unmixed,
had the great merit of a simplicity and nature that are
not always found in more sophisticated circles. The
occasional incongruities struck them all, more than the
positive general faults ; and Sir George Ternplemore
did justice to the truth, by admitting frankly, the dan
ger he had been in of forming a too hasty opinion.

All this time, which occupied a month, the young
baronet got to be more and more intimate in Hudson
Square, Eve gradually becoming more frank and unre
served with him, as she grew sensible that he had
abandoned his hopes of success with herself, and Grace
gradually more cautious and timid, as she became con-

92 HOME AS FOUND.

scious of his power to please, and the interest he tool-
in herself.

It might have been three days after the ball at Mrs
Houston's that most of the family was engaged to
look in on a Mrs. Legend, a lady of what was called
a literary turn, Sir George having been asked to make
one of their party. Aristabulus was already returned
to his duty in the country, where we shall shortly have
occasion to join him, but an invitation had been sent
to Mr. Truck, under the general, erroneous impression
of his real character.

Taste, whether in the arts, literature, or any thing
else, is a natural impulse, like love. It is true both may
be cultivated and heightened by circumstances, but the
impulses must be voluntary, and the flow of fee-ling, or
of soul, as it has become a law to style it, is not to be
forced, or commanded to come and go at will. This
is the reason that all premeditated enjoyments con
nected with the intellect, are apt to baffle expectations,
and why academies, literary clubs, coteries and din
ners are commonly dull. It is true that a body of cle
ver people may be brought together, and, if left to their
own impulses, the characters of their mind will show
themselves ; wit will flash, and thought will answer
thought spontaneously ; but every effort to make the
stupid agreeable, by giving a direction of a pretending
intellectual nature to their efforts, is only rendering
dullness more conspicuous by exhibiting it in contrast
with what it ought to be to be clever, as a bad picture
is rendered the more conspicuous by an elaborate and
gorgeous frame.

The latter was the fate of most of Mrs. Legend's
literary evenings, at which it was thought an illustra
tion to understand even one foreign language. But, it
was known that Eve was skilled in most of the Euro
pean tongues, and, the good lady, not feeling that such
accomplishments are chiefly useful as a means, looked
about her in order to collect a set, among whom our

HOME AS FOUND. 93

heroine might find some one with whom to converse
in each of her dialects. Little was said about it, it is
true, but great efforts were made to cause this evening
to be memorable in the annals of conversazioni.

In carrying out this scheme, nearly all the wits, wri
ters, artists and literati, as the most incorrigible mem
bers of the book clubs were styled, in New- York, were
pressingly invited to be present. Aristabulus had con
trived to earn such a reputation for the captain, on the
night of the ball, that he was universally called a man
of letters, and an article had actually appeared in one
of the papers, speaking of the literary merits of the
" Hon. and Rev. Mr. Truck, a gentleman travelling in
our country, from whose liberality and just views, an
account of our society was to be expected, that should,
at last, do justice to our national character." With
such expectations, then, every true American and
Americaness, was expected to be at his or her post,
for the solemn occasion. It was a rally of literature,
in defence of the institutions — no, not of the institutions,
for they were left to take care of themselves — but of
the social character of the community.

Alas! it is easier to feel high aspirations on such
subjects, in a provincial town, than to succeed ; for
merely calling a place an Emporium, is very far from
giving it the independence, high tone, condensed intel
ligence and tastes of a capital. Poor Mrs. Legend,
desirous of having all the tongues duly represented,
was obliged to invite certain dealers in gin from Hol
land, a German linen merchant from Saxony, an Italian
Cavaliero, who amused himself in selling beads, and n
Spanish master, who was born in Portugal, all of
whom had just one requisite for conversation in their
respective languages, and no more. But such assem
blies were convened in Paris, and why not in New-
York ?

We shall not stop to dwell on the awful sensations
With which Mrs. Legend heard the first ring at her

94 HOME AS FOUND.

door, on the eventful night in question. It was the
precursor of the entrance of Miss Annual, as regular
a devotee of letters as ever conned a primer. The
mee-ting was sentimental and affectionate. Before
either had time, however, to disburthen her mind of
one half of its prepared phrases, ring upon ring pro
claimed more company, and the rooms were soon as
much sprinkled with talent, as a modern novel with
jests. Among those who came first, appeared ail the
foreign corps, for the refreshments entered as some
thing into the account with them ; every blue of the
place, whose social position in the least entitled her to
be seen in such a house, Mrs. Legend belonging quite
positively to good society.

The scene that succeeded was very characteristic.
A professed genius does nothing like other people, ex
cept in cases that require a display of tajents. In all
minor matters, he, or she, is sui generis ; for sentiment
is in constant ebullition in their souls ; this being what
is meant by the flow of that part of the human system.

We might here very well adopt the Homeric me
thod, and call the roll of heroes and heroines, in what
the French would term a catalogue raisonnee ; but our
limits compel us to be less ambitious, and to adopt a
simpler mode of communicating facts. Among the
ladies who now figured in the drawing-room of Mrs.
Legend, besides Miss Annual, were Miss Monthly,
Mrs. Economy, S. R. P., Marion, Longinus, Julietta,
Herodotus, D. O. V. E., and Mrs. Demonstration ; be
sides many others of less note ; together with at least
a dozen female Hajjis, whose claims to appear in such
society were pretty much dependent on the fact, that
having seen pictures and statues abroad, they necessa
rily must have the means of talking of them at home.
The list of men was still more formidable in numbers,
if not in talents. At its head stood Steadfast Dodge,
Esquire, whose fame as a male Hajji had so far swollen
since Mrs. Jarvis's reunion, that, for the first time in

HOME AS FOUND. 95

his life, he now entered one of the better houses of his
own country. Then there were the authors of " La
pis Lazuli," "The Aunts," " The Reformed," "The
Conformed," " The Transformed," and " The Deform
ed ;" with the editors of " The Hebdomad," " The
Night Cap," " The Chrysalis," " The Real Maggot,"
and " The Seek no Further ;" as also, " Junius," " Ju-
nius Brutus," "Lucius Junius Brutus," " Captain Kant,"
"Florio," the * Author of the History of Billy Link-
um Tweedle', the celebrated Pottawattamie Prophet,
" Single Rhyme," a genius who had prudently rested
his fame in verse, on a couplet composed of one line ;
besides divers amateurs and connoisseurs, Hajjis, who
?nust be men of talents, as they had acquired all they
knew, very much as American Eclipse gained his lau
rels on the turf; that is to say, by a free use of the
whip and spur.

As Mrs. Legend sailed about her rooms amid such
a circle, her mind expanded, her thoughts diffused them
selves among her guests on the principle of Animal
Magnetism, and her heart was melting with the tender
sympathies of congenial tastes. She felt herself to be
at the head of American talents, and, in the secret re
cesses of her reason, she determined that, did even the
fate of Sodom and Gomorrah menace her native town,
as some evil disposed persons had dared to insinuate
might one day be the case, here was enough to save it
from destruction.

It was just as the mistress of the mansion had come
to this consoling conclusion, that the party from Hudson
Square rang. As few of her guests came in carriages,
Mrs. Legend, who heard the rolling of wheels, felt per
suaded that the lion of the night was now indeed at
hand ; and with a view to a proper reception, she re
quested the company to divide itself into two lines, in
order that he might enter, as it were, between lanes
of genius.

It may be necessary to explain, at this point of our
narrative, that John Effingham was perfectly aware

96 HOME AS POUND.

of the error which existed in relation to the real cha.
racter of Captain Truck, wherein he thought great in
justice had been done the honest seaman ; and, the old
man intending to sail for London next morning, had
persuaded him to accept this invitation, in order that
the public mind might be disabused in a matter of so
much importance. With a view that this might be done
naturally and without fuss, however, he did not explain
the mistake to his nautical friend, believing it most
probable that this could be better done incidentally, as
it were, in the course of the evening ; and feeling cer
tain of the force of that wholesome apothegm, which
says that " truth is powerful and must prevail." " If
this be so," added John Effingham, in his explanations
to Eve, " there can be no place where the sacred qua
lity will be so likely to assert itself, as in a galaxy of
geniuses, whose distinctive characteristic is ' an intui
tive perception of things in their real colours.' "

When the door of Mrs. Legend's drawing-room
opened, in the usual noiseless manner. Mademoiselle
Viefville, who led the way, was startled at finding her
self in the precise situation of one who is condemned
to run the gauntlet. Fortunately, she caught a
glimpse of Mrs. Legend, posted at the other end of the
proud array, inviting her, with smiles, to approach.
The invitation had been to a " literary fete" and Made
moiselle Viefville was too much of a Frenchwoman
to be totally disconcerted at a little scenic effect on
the occasion of a. fete of any sort. Supposing she was
now a witness of an American ceremony for the first
time, for the want of representation in the country had
been rather a subject of animadversion with her, she
advanced steadily towards the mistress of the house,
bestowing smile for smile, this being a part of the pro
gramme at which a Parisienne was not easily outdone.
Eve followed, as usual, sola; Grace came next; then
Sir George ; then John Effingham ; the captain bring
ing up the rear. There had been a friendly contest,

HOME AS FOUND. 07

for the precedency, between the two last, each desi
ring to yield it to the other on the score of merit ; but
the captain prevailed, by declaring " that he was navi
gating an unknown sea, and that he could do nothing
wiser than to sail in the wake of so good a pilot as
Mr. John Effingham,"

As Hajjis of approved experience, the persons who
led the advance in this little procession, were subjects
of a proper attention and respect; but as the admira
tion of mere vulgar travelling would in itself be vulgar,
care was taken to reserve the condensed feeling of
the company for the celebrated English writer and
wit, \vho was known to bring up the rear. This was
not a common house, in which dollars had place, or
belles rioted, but the temple of genius ; and every one
felt an ardent desire to manifest a proper homage to
the abilities of the established foreign writer, that should
be in exact proportion to their indifference to the twenty
thousand a year of John Effingham, and to the nearly
equal amount of Eve's expectations.

The personal appearance of the honest tar was well
adapted to the character he was thus called on so un
expectedly to support. His hair had long been getting
grey, but the intense anxiety of the chase, of the
wreck, and of his other recent adventures, had rapidly,
but effectually, increased this mark of time ; and his
head was now nearly as white as snow. The hale,
fresh, red -of his features, which was in truth the result
of exposure, might very well pass for the tint of port,
and his tread, which had always a little of the quarter
deck swing about it, might quite easily be mistaken by
a tyro, for the human frame staggering under a load
of learning. Unfortunately for those who dislike mys
tifications, the captain had consulted John Effingham
on the subject of the toilette, and that kind and indul
gent friend had suggested the propriety of appearing
in black small-clothes for the occasion, a costume that
he often wore himself of an evening. Reality, in this
VOL. I. 9

98 HOME AS FOUND.

instance, then, did not disappoint expectation, and the
burst of applause with which the captain was received,
was accompanied by a general murmur in commen
dation of the admirable manner in which he " lookea
the character."

" What a Byronic head," whispered the author of
" The Transformed" to D. O. V. E. ; " and was there
ever such a curl of the lip, before, to mortal man !"

The truth is, the captain had thrust his tobacco into
" an aside," as a monkey is known to empocher a spare
nut, or a lump of sugar.

" Do you think him Byronic ? — To my eye, the cast
of his head is Shaksperian, rather ; though I confess
there is a little of Milton about the forehead !"

" Pray," said Miss Annual, to Lucius Junius Brutus,
"which is commonly thought to be the best of his
works ; that on a — a — a, — or that on e — e — e ?"

Now, so it happened, that not a soul in the room,
but the lion himself, had any idea what books he had
written, and he knew only of some fifteen or twenty
log-books. It was generally understood, that he wa's
a great English writer, and this was more than suffi
cient.

" I believe the world generally prefers the a — a — a,"
said Lucius Junius Brutus ; " but the few give a de
cided preference to the e — e — e "

" Oh ! out of all question preferable !" exclaimed
half a dozen, in hearing.

" With what a classical modesty he pays his com
pliments to Mrs. Legend," observed " S. R."P." — " One
can always tell a man of real genius, by his tenu /"

" He is so English !" cried Florio. " Ah ! they are
the only people, after all !"

This Florio was one of those geniuses who sigh
most for the things that they least possess.

By this time Captain Truck had got through with
listening to the compliments of Mrs. Legend, when he
was seized upon by a circle of rabid literati, who

HOME AS FOUND. 99

badgered him with questions concerning his opinions,
notions, inferences, experiences, associations, sensa
tions, sentiments and intentions, in a way that soon
threw the old man into a profuse perspiration. Fifty
times did he wish, from the bottom of his soul, that
soul which the crowd around him fancied dwelt so
high in the clouds, that he was seated quietly by the
side of Mrs. Hawker, who, he mentally swore, was
worth all the literati in Christendom. But fate had
decreed otherwise, and we shall leave him to his for
tune, for a time, and return to our heroine and her
party.

As soon as Mrs. Legend had got through with her
introductory compliments to the captain, she sought
Eve and Grace, with a consciousness that a few civili
ties were now their due.

" I fear, Miss Effingham, after the elaborate soirtes
of the literary circles in Paris, you will find our re
unions of the same sort, a little dull ; and yet I flatter
myself with having assembled most of the talents of
New-York on this memorable occasion, to do honour
to your friend. Are you acquainted with many of the
company ?"

Now7, Eve had never seen nor ever heard of a single
being in the room, with the exception of Mr. Dodge
and her own party, before this night, although most
of them had been so laboriously employed in puffing
each other into celebrity, for many weary years ; and,
as for elaborate soirees, she thought she had never seen
one half as elaborate as this of Mrs. Legend's. As it
would not very well do, however, to express all this in
words, she civilly desired the lady to point out to her
some of the most distinguished of the company.

" With the greatest pleasure, Miss Effingham," Mrs.
Legend taking pride in dwelling on the merits of her
guests. — "This heavy, grand-looking personage, in
whose air one sees refinement and modesty at a glance,
is Captain Kant, the editor of one of our most de-

100 HOME AS FOUND

cidedly pious newspapers. His mind is distinguished
ibr its intuitive perception of all that is delicate, re
served and finished in the intellectual world, while, in
opposition to this quality, which is almost feminine, his
character is just as remarkable for its unflinching love
of truth. He was never known to publish a falsehood,
and of his foreign correspondence, in particular, he is
so exceedingly careful, that he assures me he has
every word of it written under his own eye."

" On the subject of his religious scruples,*1 added
John Effingham, " he is so fastidiously exact, that I
hear he ' says grace' over every thing that goes from
his press, and * returns thanks' for every thing that
comes to it."

"You know him, Mr. Effingham, by this remark?
Is he not, truly, a man of a vocation 1"

" That, indeed, he is, ma'am. He may be succinctly
said to have a newspaper mind, as he reduces every
thing in nature or art to news, and commonly imparts
to it so much of his own peculiar character, that it
loses all identity with the subjects to which it origin
ally belonged. One scarcely knows which to admire
most about this man, the atmospheric transparency of
his motives, for he is so disinterested as seldom even to
think of paying for a dinner when travelling, and yet
so conscientious as always to say something obliging
of the tavern as soon as he gets home — his rigid regard
to facts, or the exquisite refinement and delicacy that
he imparts to every thing he touches. Over all this,
too, he throws a beautiful halo of morality and reli
gion, never even prevaricating in the hottest discussion,
unless with the unction of a saint !"

"Do you happen to know Florio?" asked Mrs. Le
gend, a little distrusting John Effingham's account of
Captain Kant.

" If I do, it must indeed be by accident. What are
his chief characteristics, ma'am ?"

" Sentiment, pathos, delicacy, and all in rhyme, too

HOME AS FOUND. 10]

You, no doubt, have heard of his triumph over Lord
Byron, Miss Effingham ?"

Eve was obliged to confess that it was new to her.

" Why, Byron wrote an ode to Greece, commencing
with * The Isles of Greece ! the Isles of Greece !' a
very feeble line, as any one will see, for it contained a
useless and an unmeaning repetition."

" And you might add vulgar, too, Mrs. Legend,"
said John Effingham, " since it made a palpable allu
sion to all those vulgar incidents that associate them
selves in the mind, with these said common-place isles.
The arts, philosophy, poetry, eloquence, and even, old
Homer, are brought unpleasantly to one's recollection,
by such an indiscreet invocation."

" So Florio thought, and, by way of letting the
world perceive the essential difference between the
base and the pure coin, he wrote an ode on England,
which commenced as such an ode should!"

" Do you happen to recollect any of it, ma'am ?"

" Only the first line, \vhich I greatly regret, as the
rhyme is Florio's chief merit. But this line is, of itself,
sufficient to immortalize a man."

" Do not keep us in torment, dear Mrs. Legend, but
let us have it, of heaven's sake !"

" It began in this sublime strain, sir — * Beyond the
wave ! — Beyond the viave !' Now, Miss Effingham,
that is what /call poetry!"

" And well you may, ma'am," returned the gentle
man, who perceived Eve could scarce refrain from
breaking out in a very unsentimental manner — " So
much .pathos."

" And so sententious and flowing !"

" Condensing a journey of three thousand miles, as
it might be, into three words, and a note of admira
tion. I trust it was printed with a note of admiration,
Mrs. Legend?'

" Yes, sir, with two — one behind each wave — and
such waves, Mr. Effingham !"

9*

102 HOME AS FOUND.

" Indeed, ma'am, you may say so. One really gets
a grand idea of them, England lying beyond each."

"So much expressed in so few syllables!"

" I think I see every shoal, current, ripple, rock,
island, and whale, between Sandy Hook and the Land's
End."

" He hints at an epic."

" Pray God he may execute one. Let him make
haste, too, or he may get « behind the age/ * behind the
age.' »

Here the lady was called away to receive a guest.

" Cousin Jack !"

"Eve Effingham?"

" Do you not sometimes fear offending ?"

" Not a woman who begins with expressing her ad
miration of such a sublime thing as this. You are
safe with such a person, any where short of a tweak
of the nose."

" Mais, tout ceci est bien drole /"

" You never were more mistaken in your life, Made
moiselle ; every body here looks upon it as a matter
of life and death."

The new guest was Mr. Pindar, one of those care
less, unsentimental fellows, that occasionally throw off
an ode that passes through Christendom, as dollars arc
known to pass from China to Norway, and yet, who
never fancied spectacles necessary to his appearance,
solemnity to his face, nor soirees to his renown. After
quitting Mrs. Legend, he approached Eve, to whom
he was slightly kno\vn, and accosted her.

" This is the region of taste, Miss Effingh-am," he
said, with a shrug of the jaw, if such a member can,
shrug ; " and I do not wonder at finding you here."

He then chatted pleasantly a moment, with the par
ty, and passed on, giving an ominous gape, as he drew
nearer to the oi polJoi of literature. A moment after
appeared Mr. Gray, a man who needed nothing but
taste in the public, and the encouragement that would

HOME AS FOUND. 103

follow such a taste, to stand at, or certainly near, the
head of the poets of our own time. He, too, looked
shily at the galaxy, and took refuge in a corner.
Mr. Pith followed ; a man whose caustic wit needs
only a sphere for its exercise, manners to portray, and
a society with strong points about it to illustrate, in
order to enrol his name high on the catalogue of sa
tirists. Another ring announced Mr. Fun, a writer of
exquisite humour, and of finished periods, but who,
having perpetrated a little too much sentiment, was
instantly seized upon by all the ultra ladies who were
addicted to the same taste in that way, in the room.

These persons came late, like those who had already
been too often dosed in the same way, to be impatient
of repetitions. The three first soon got together in a
corner, and Eve fancied they were laughing at the rest
of the company ; whereas, in fact, they were merely
laughing at a bad joke of their own ; their quick per
ception of the ludicrous having pointed out a hundred
odd combinations and absurdities, that would have
escaped duller minds.

" Who, in the name of the twelve Ca3sars, has Mrs.
Legend got to lionize, yonder, with the white summit
and the dark base V asked the writer of odes.

" Some English pamphleteer, by what I can learn,"
answered he of satire ; " some fellow who has achieved
a pert review, or written a Minerva Pressism, and who
now flourishes like a bay tree among us. A modern
Horace, or a Juvenal on his travels."

" Fun is well badgered," observed Mr. Gray; — " Do
you not see that Miss Annual, Miss Monthly, and that
young alphabet D. O. V. E., have got him within the
circle of their petticoats, where he will be martyred on
a sigh?"

" He casts longing looks this way ; he wishes you
to go to his rescue, Pith."

" I ! — Let him take his fill of sentiment ! I am no
homoepathist in such matters. Large doses in quick

104 HOME AS FOUND.

succession, will soonest work a cure. Here comes the
lion, and he breaks loose from his cage, like a beast
that has been poked up with sticks."

" Good evening, gentlemen," said Captain Truck,
wiping his face intensely, and who having made his
escape from a throng of admirers, took refuge in the
first port that offered. " You seem to be enjoying
yourselves here in a rational and agreeable way. Quite
cool and refreshing in this corner."

" And yet we have no doubt that both our reason
and our amusement will receive a large increase from
the addition of your society, sir," returned Mr. Pith. —
" Do us the favour to take a seat, I beg of you, and.
rest yourself."

" With all my heart, gentlemen ; for, to own the
truth, these ladies make warm work about a stranger.
I have just got out of what I call a category."

" You appear to have escaped with life, sir," ob
served Pindar, taking a cool survey of the other's
person.

'* Yes, thank God, I have done that, and it is pretty
much all," answered the captain, wiping his face. " I
served in the French war — Truxtun's war, as we
call it — and I had a touch with the English in the
privateer trade, between twelve and fifteen ; and here,
quite lately, I was in an encounter with the savage
Arabs down on the coast of Africa ; and I account
them all as so much snow-balling, compared with the
yard-arm and yard-arm work of this very night. I
wonder if it is permitted to try a cigar at these con-
versation-onies, gentlemen ?"

" I believe it is, sir," returned Pindar, coolly. " Shall
I help you to a light ?"

"Oh! Mr. Truck!" cried Mrs. Legend, following
the chafed animal to his corner, as one would pursue
any other runaway, " instinct has brought you into this
good company. You are, now, in the very focus of
American talents."

HOME AS FOUND. 105

" Having just escaped from the focus of American
talons," whispered Pith.

" I rnust be permitted to introduce you myself. Mr.
Truck, Mr. Pindar— Mr. Pith— Mr. Gray— gentlemen,
you must be so happy to be acquainted, being, as it
were, engaged in the same pursuits !"

The captain rose and shook each of the gentlemen
cordially by the hand, for he had, at least, the conso
lation of a great many introductions that night. Mrs.
Legend disappeared to say something to some other
prodigy.

" Happy to meet you, gentlemen," said the captain
" In what trade do you sail ?"

" By whatever name we may call it," answered Mr.
Pindar — " we can scarcely be said to go before the
wind."

"Not in the Injee business, then, or the monsoons
would keep the stun'sails set, at least."

" No, sir. — But yonder is Mr. Moccasin, who has
lately set up, secundum artem, in the Indian business,
having written two novels in that way already, and
begun a third."

" Are you all regularly employed, gentlemen ?"

" As regularly as inspiration points," said Mr. Pith.
" Men of our occupation must make fair weather of it,
or we had better be doing nothing."

" So I often tell my owners, but ' go ahead' is the
order. When I was a youngster, a ship remained in
port for a fair wind ; but, now, she goes to work and
makes one. The world seems to get young, as I get
old."

. " This is a mm litterateur," Gray whispered to Pin
dar.

"It is an obvious mystification," was the answer;
" poor Mrs. Legend has picked up some straggling
porpoise, and converted him, by a touch of her magi
cal wand, into a Boanerges of literature. The thing
is as clear as day, for the worthy fellow smells of tar

106 HOME AS FOUND.

and cigar smoke. I perceive that Mr. Effingham is
laughing out of the corner of his eyes, and will step
across the room, and get the truth, in a minute."

The rogue was as good as his word, and was soon
back again, and contrived to let his friends understand
the real state of the case. A knowledge of the cap
tain's true character encouraged this trio in the be
nevolent purpose of aiding the honest oM seaman in his
wish to smoke, and Pith managed to give him a lighted
paper, without becoming an open accessary to the plot*

" Will you take a cigar yourself, sir," said the cap
tain, offering his box to Mr. Pindar.

" I thank you, Mr. Truck, I never smoke, but am a
profound admirer of the flavour. Let me entreat you
to begin as soon as possible."

Thus encouraged, Captain Truck drew two or three
whiffs, when the rooms were immediately filled with
the fragrance of a real Havana. At the first dis
covery, the whole literary pack went off on the scent.
As for Mr. Fun, he managed to profit by the agitation
that followed, in order to escape to the three wags in
the corner, who were enjoying the scene, with the
gravity of so many dervishes.

"As I live," cried Lucius Junius Brutus, "there is
the author of a — a — a — actually smoking a cigar ! —
How excessively piquant /"

" Do my eyes deceive me, or is not that the writer
of e — e — e — fumigating us all !" whispered Miss
Annual.

" Nay, this cannot certainly be right," put in Florio,
with a dogmatical manner. " All the periodicals
agree that smoking is ungenteel in England." r

'* You never were more mistaken, dear Florio,"
replied D. O. V. E. in a cooing tone. " The very last
novel of society has a chapter in which the hero and
heroine smoke in the declaration scene."

" Do they, indeed ! — That alters the case. Really,
one would not wish to get behind so great a nation,

HOME AS FOUND. 107

iior yet go much before it. Pray, Captain Kant, what
do your friends in Canada say ; is, or is not smoking
permitted in good society there ? the Canadians must,
at least, be ahead of us."

" Not at all, sir," returned the editor in his softest
tones ; " it is revolutionary and Jacobinical."

But the ladies prevailed, and, by a process that is
rather peculiar to what may be called a " credulous"
state of society, they carried the day. This process
was simply to make one fiction authority for another.
The fact that smoking was now carried so far in
England, that the clergy actually used cigars in the
pulpits, was affirmed on the authority of Mr. Truck
himself, and, coupled with his present occupation, the
point wras deemed to be settled. Even Florio yielded,
and his plastic mind soon saw a thousand beauties in
the usage, that had hitherto escaped it. All the literati
drew round the captain in a circle, to enjoy the spec
tacle, though the honest old mariner contrived to throw
out such volumes of vapour as to keep them at a safe
distance. His four demure-looking neighbours got be
hind the barrier of smoke, wrhere they deemed them
selves entrenched against the assaults of sentimental
petticoats, for a time, at least.

" Pray, Mr. Truck," inquired S. R. P., " is it com
monly thought in the English literary circles, that
Byron was a developement of Shakspeare, or Shak-
speare a shadowing forth of Byron?"

"Both, marm," said the captain, with a coolness
that would have done credit to Aristabulus, for he had
been fairly badgered into impudence, profiting by the
occasion to knock the ashes off his cigar ; " all incline
to the first opinion, and most to the last."

" What finesse !" murmured one. " How delicate !"
whispered a second. "A dignified reserve!" ejacu
lated a third. " So English !" exclaimed Florio.

'•Do you think, Mr. Truck," asked D. O. V. E.,
" that the profane songs of Little have more pathos

108 HOME AS FOUND.

than the sacred songs of Moore ; or that the sacred
songs of Moore have more sentiment than the profane
songs of Little?"

" A good deal of both, marm, and something to
spare. I think there is little in one, and more in the
other."

" Pray, sir," said J. R. P., " do you pronounce the
name of Byron's lady-love, Guv-kee-oh-/*/, or, Gwy-
ky-o-Zee?"

" That depends on how the wind is. If on shore, I
am apt to say * oh-lee;' and if off shore, 'oh-lie.' "

" That's capital !" cried Florio, in an extasy of ad
miration. " What man in this country could have
said as crack a thing as that ?"

" Indeed it is very witty," added Miss Monthly —
"what does it mean?"

"Mean! More than is seen or felt by common
minds. Ah ! the English are truly a great nation ! —
How delightfully he smokes !"

" I think he is much the most interesting man we
have had out here," observed Miss Annual, ** since the
last bust of Scott !"

" Ask him, dear D. O. V. E.," whispered Julietta,
who was timid, from the circumstance of never having
published, " which he thinks the most ecstatic feeling
hope or despair ?"

The question was put by the more experienced lady
according to request, though she first said, in a hurried
tone, to her youthful sister — " you can have felt but
little, child, or you would know that it is despair, as a
matter of course."

The honest captain, however, did not treat the mat
ter so lightly, for he improved the opportunity to light
a fresh cigar, throwing the still smoking stump into
Mrs. Legend's grate, through a lane of literati, as he
afterwards boasted, as coolly as he could have thrown
it overboard, under other circumstances. Luckily for
his reputation for sentiment, he mistook " ecstatic," a

HOME AS FOUND. 109

word he had never heard before, for " erratic ;" and
recollecting sundry roving maniacs that he had seen,
he answered promptly

" Despair, out and out."

" I knew it," said one.

" It's in nature," added a second.

" All can feel its truth," rejoined a third.

" This point may now be set down as established,"
cried Florio, " and I hope no more will be said about
it."

" This is encouragement to the searchers after truth./'
put in Captain Kant.

" Pray, Hon. and Rev. Mr. Truck," asked Lucius
Junius Brutus, at the joint suggestion of Junius Brutus
and Brutus, " does the Princess Victoria smoke ?"

" If she did not, sir, where would be the use in being
a princess. I suppose you know that all the tobacco
seized in England, after a deduction to informers, goes
to the crown."

" I object to this usage," remarked Captain Kant,
" as irreligious, French, and tending to sans-culotteism.
I am willing to admit of this distinguished instance as
an exception ; but on all other grounds, I shall maintain
that it savours of infidelity to smoke. The Prussian
government, much the best of our times, never smokes."

" This man thinks he has a monoply of the puffing,
himself," Pindar whispered into the captain's ear;
" whiff away, my dear sir, and you '11 soon throw him
into the shade."

The captain winked, drew out his box, lighted an
other cigar, and, by way of reply to the envious
remark, he put one in each corner of his mouth, and
soon had both in full blast, a state in which he kept
them for near a minute.

" This is the very picturesque of social enjoyment,"
exclaimed Florio, holding up both hands in a glow of
rapture. " It is absolutely Homeric, in the way of
usages ! Ah ! the English are a great nation!"
VOL. I. 10

110 HOME AS FOUND.

" I should like to know excessively if there was
really such a person as Baron Mun-chaw-sen 7" said
Julietta, gathering courage from the success of her
last question.

" There was, Miss," returned the captain, through
his teeth, and nodding his head in the affirmative. "A
regular traveller, that; and one who knew him well,
swore to me that he hadn't related one half of what
befel him."

" How very delightful to learn this from the highest
quarter !" exclaimed Miss Monthly.

"Is Gatty (Goethe) really dead?" inquired Lon-
ginus, " or, is the account we have had to that effect,
merely a metaphysical apotheosis of his mighty soul t"

" Dead, marm— stone dead — dead as a door-nail,"
returned the captain, who saw a relief in killing as
many as possible.

" You have been in France, Mr. Truck, beyond
question 1" observed Lucius Junius Brutus, in the way
one puts a question.

" France ! — I was in France before I was ten years
old. I know every foot of the coast, from Havre de
Grace to Marseilles."

" Will you then have the goodness to explain to us
whether the soul of Chat-to-bri-ong is more expanded
than his reason, or his reason more expanded than his
soul ?"

Captain Truck had a very tolerable notion of Baron
Munchausen and of his particular merits ; but Chateau-
briant was a writer of whom he knew nothing. After
pondering a moment, and feeling persuaded that a
confession of ignorance might undo him ; for the old
man had got to be influenced by the atmosphere of the
place ; he answered coolly —

" Oh ! Chat-fo-bri-oftg-, is it you mean ? — As whole-
souled a fellow as I know. All soul, sir, and lots of rea
son, besides."

" How simple and unaffected !"

HOME AS FOUND. Ill

" Crack !" exclaimed Florio.

" A thorough Jacobin !" growled Captain Kant, who
was always offended when any one but himself took
liberties with the truth.

Here the four wags in the corner observed that head
went to head in the crowd, and that the rear rank of
the company began to disappear, while Mrs. Legend
was in evident distress. In a few minutes, all the Ro
mans wrere off; Florio soon after vanished, grating his
teeth in a poetical frenzy; and even Captain Kant,
albeit so used to look truth in the face, beat a retreat.
The alphabet followed, and even the Annual and the
Monthly retired, with leave-takings so solemn and pre
cise, that poor Mrs. Legend was in total despair.

Eve, foreseeing something unpleasant, had gone
away first, and, in a few minutes, Mr. Dodge, who
had been very active in the crowd, whispering and
gesticulating, made his bow also. The envy of this
man had, in fact, become so intolerable, that he had
let the cat out of the bag. No one now remained but
the party entrenched behind the smoke, and the mis
tress of 'the house. Pindar solemnly proposed to the
captain that they should go and enjoy an oyster-
supper, in company ; and, the proposal being cordially
accepted, they rose in a body, to take leave.

" A most delightful evening, Mrs. Legend," said Pin
dar, with perfect truth, " much the pleasantest I ever
passed in a house, where one passes so many that are
agreeable."

" I cannot properly express my thanks for the obli
gation you have conferred by making me acquainted
with Mr. Truck," added Gray. " I shall cultivate it
as far as in my power, for a more capital fellow never
breathed."

44 Really, Mrs. Legend, this has been a Byronic
night !" observed Pith, as he made his bow. " I shall
long remember it, and I think it deserves to be com
memorated in verse."

112 HOME AS FOUND.

%

Fun endeavoured to look sympathetic and senti
mental, though the spirit within could scarcely refrain
from grinning in Mrs. Legend's face. He stammered
out a few compliments, however, and disappeared.

" WeW, good night, inarm," said Captain Truck,
offering his hand cordially. " This has been a plea
sant evening, altogether, though it was warm work at
first. If you like ships, I should be glad to show you
the Montauk's cabins when we get back ; and if you
ever think of Europe, let me recommend the London
line as none of the worst. We '11 try to make you
comfortable, and trust to me to choose a state-room, a
thing I am experienced in."

Not one of the wags laughed until they were fairly
confronted with the oysters. Then, indeed, they burst
out into a general and long fit of exuberant merriment,
returning to it, between the courses from the kitchen,
like the refrain of a song. Captain Truck, who was
uncommonly well satisfied with himself, did not under
stand the meaning of all this boyishness, but he has
often declared since, that a heartier or a funnier set of
fellows he never fell in with, than his four companions
proved to be that night.

As for the literary soiree, the most profound silence
has been maintained concerning it, neither of the wits
there assembled having seen fit to celebrate it in rhyme,
and Florio having actually torn up an impromptu for
the occasion, that he had been all the previous day
writing.

HOME AS FOUND. 113

CHAPTER VII.

"There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy
With a near aim, of the main chance of things,
As yet not come to life."

KING HENRY VI.

THE following morning the baronet breakfasted in
Hudson Square. While at table, little was said concern
ing the events of the past night, though sundry smiles
were exchanged, as eye met eye, and the recollection
of the mystification returned. Grace alone looked
grave, for she had been accustomed to consider Mrs.
Legend a very discriminating person, and she had even
hoped that most of those who usually figured in her
rooms, were really the clever persons they laid claim
to be.

The morning was devoted to looking at the quarter
of the town which is devoted to business, a party having
been made for that express purpose under the auspices
of John Effingham. As the weather was very cold,
although the distances were not great, the carriages
were ordered, and they all set off about noon.

Grace had given up expecting a look of admiration
from Eve in behalf of any of the lions of New- York,
her cousin having found it necessary to tell her, that,
in a comparative sense at least, little was to be said in
behalf of these provincial wonders. Even Mademoi
selle Viefville, now that the freshness of her feelings
were abated, had dropped quietly down into a natural
way of speaking of these things ; and Grace, who was
quick-witted, soon discovered that when she did make
any allusions to similar objects in Europe, it was al
ways to those that existed in some country town. A
10*

114 HOME AS FOUND.

silent convention existed, therefore, to speak no more
on such subjects ; or if any thing was said, it arose in
cidentally and as inseparable from the regular thread
of the discourse.

When in Wall street, the carriages stopped and the
gentlemen alighted. .The severity of the weather kept
the ladies in the chariot, where Grace endeavoured to
explain things as well as she could to her companions.

" What are all these people running after, so intent
ly ?" inquired Mademoiselle Viefville, the conversation
being in French, but which we shall render freely into
English, for the sake of the general reader.

" Dollars, I believe, Mademoiselle ; am I right,
Grace t"

"I believe you are," returned Grace, laughing,
" though I know little more of this part of the town than
yourself."

" Quelle fouh ! Is that building filled with dollars,
into which the gentlemen are now entering ] Its steps
are crowded."

•'* That is the Bourse, Mademoiselle, and it ought to
be well lined, by the manner in which some who fre
quent it live. Cousin Jack and Sir George are going
into the crowd, I see."

We will leave the ladies in their seats, a few minutes,
and accompany the gentlemen on their way into the
Exchange.

" I shall now show you, Sir George Templemore,"
said John Effingham, " what is peculiar to this coun
try, and what, if properly improved, it is truly wortn
a journey across the ocean to see. You have been
at the Royal Exchange in London, and at the Bourse
of Paris, but you have never witnessed a scene like
that which I am about to introduce you to. In Paris,
you have beheld the unpleasant spectacle of women
gambling publicly in the funds ; but it was in driblets,
compared to what you will see here."

While speaking, John Effingham led the way up
stairs into the office of one of the most considerable

HOME AS TOUND. 115

auctioneers. The walls were lined with maps, some
representing houses, some lots, some streets, some en
tire towns.

" This is the focus of what Aristabulus Bragg calls
the town trade," said John Effingham, when fairly con
fronted with all these wonders. " Here, then, you
may suit yourself with any species of real estate that
neart can desire. If a villa is wanted, there are a
dozen. Of farms, a hundred are in market ; that is
merely half-a-dozen streets ; and here are towns, of
dimensions and value to suit purchasers."

" Explain this ; it exceeds comprehension."

" It is simply what it professes to be. Mr. Hammer,
do us the favour to step this way. Are you selling to
day ?"

" Not much, sir. Only a hundred or two lots on this
island, and some six or eight farms, with one western
village."

" Can you tell us the history of this particular piece
of property, Mr. Hammer?"

" With great pleasure, Mr. Effingham ; we know
you to have means, and hope you may be induced to
purchase. This was the farm of old Volkert Van
Brunt, five years since, off of which he and his family
had made a livelihood for more than a century, by
selling milk. Two years since, the sons sold it to Pe
ter Feeler for a hundred an acre ; or for the total sum
of five thousand dollars. The next spring Mr. Feeler
sold it to John Search, as keen a one as we have, for
twenty-five thousand. Search sold it, at private sale,
to Nathan Rise for fifty thousand, the next week, and
Rise had parted with it, to a company, before the pur
chase, for a hundred and twelve thousand cash. The
map ought to be taken down, for it is now7 eight months
since we sold it out in lots, at auction, for the gross
sum of three hundred thousand dollars. As we have
received our commission, we look at that land as out
of the market, for a time."

116 HOME AS FOUND.

" Have you other property, sir, that affords the same
wonderful history of a rapid advance in value?" asked
the baronet.

" These walls are covered with maps of estates in
the same predicament. Some have risen two or three
thousand per cent, within five years, and some only a
few hundred. -There i-s no calculating in the matter,
for it is all fancy."

" And on what is this e-normous increase in value
founded ? — Does the town extend to these fields ?"

" It goes much farther, sir ; that is to say, on paper.
In the way of houses, it is still some miles short of
them. A good deal depends on what you call a thing,
in this mantel. Now, if old Volkert Van Brunt's pro
perty had been still called a farm, it would have brought
a farm price ; but, as soon as it was surveyed into lots,
and mapped "

" Mapped !"

" Yes, sir ; brought into visible lines, with feet and
inches. As soon as it was properly mapped, it rose to
its just value. We have a good deal of the bottom of
the sea that brings fair prices in consequence of being
well mapped."

Here the gendemen expressed their sense of the
auctioneer's politeness, and retired.

" We will now go into the sales-room," said John
Effingham, "where you shall judge of the spirit, or
energy, as it is termed, which, at this moment, actuates
this great nation."

Descending, they entered a crowd, where scores
were eagerly bidding against each other, in the fearful
delusion of growing rich by pushing a fancied value
to a point still higher. One was purchasing ragged
rocks, another the bottom of rivers, a third a bog, and
all on the credit of maps. Our two observers remain
ed some time silent spectators of the scene.

" When I first entered that room," said John Effing-
ham, as they left the place, " it appeared to me to be

HOME AS FOUND. 117

filled with maniacs. Now, that I have been in it seve
ral times, the impression is not much altered."

" And all those persons are hazarding their means
of subsistence on the imaginary estimate mentioned by
the auctioneer?"

" They are gambling as recklessly as he who places
his substance on the cast of the die. So completely
has the mania seized every one, that the obvious truth,
a truth which is as apparent as any other law of nature,
that nothing can be sustained without a foundation, is
completely overlooked, and he who should now pro
claim, in this building, principles that bitter experience
will cause every man to feel, within the next few years,
would be happy if he escaped being stoned. I have
witnessed many similar excesses in the way of specu
lations ; but never an instance as gross, as wide-spread,
and as alarming as this."

" You apprehend serious consequences, then, from
the reaction ?"

" In that particular, we are better off than older na
tions, the youth and real stamina of the country avert
ing much of the danger ; but I anticipate a terrible
blow, and that the day is not remote when this town
will awake to a sense of its illusion. What you see
here is but a small part of the extravagance that exists,
for it pervades the whole community, in one shape or
another. Extravagant issues of paper-money, incon
siderate credits that commence in Europe, and extend
throughout the land, and false notions as to the value
of their possessions, in men \vho five years since had
nothing, has completely destroyed the usual balance of
things, and money has got to be so completely the end
of life, that few think of it as a means. The history
of the world, probably, cannot furnish a parallel in
stance, of an extensive country that is so absolutely
under this malign influence, as is the fact with our own
at this present instant. All principles are swallowed
up in the absorbing desire for gain ; national honour,

118 HOME AS FOUND.

permanent security, the ordinary rules of society, law,
the constitution, and every thing that is usually so deai
to men, are forgotten, or are perverted, in order to
sustain this unnatural condition of things."

" This is not only extraordinary, but it is fearful !"

" It is both. The entire community is in the situa
tion of a man who is in the incipient stages of an ex
hilarating intoxication, and who keeps pouring down
glass after glass, in the idle notion that he is merely
sustaining nature in her ordinary functions. This
\vide-spread infatuation extends from the coast to the
extremest frontiers of the west ; for, while there is a
justifiable foundation for a good deal of this fancied
prosperity, the true is so interwoven with the false, that
none but the most observant can draw the distinction ,
and, as usual, the false predominates."

" By your account, sir, the tulip mania of Holland
was trifling compared to this ?"

" That was the same in principle as our own, but
insignificant in extent. Could I lead you through these
streets, and let you into the secret of the interests,
hopes, infatuations and follies that prevail in the human
breast, you, as a calm spectator, wosld be astonished
at the manner in which your own species can be de
luded. But let us move, and something may still occur
to offer an example."

" Mr. Effingham — I beg pardon — Mr. Effingham,"
said a very gentlemanly-looking merchant, who was
walking about the hall of the exchange, "what do
you think now of our French quarrel ?"

" I have told you, Mr. Bale, all I have to say on that
subject. When in France, I wrote you that it was not
the intention of the French government to compty with
the treaty ; you have since seen this opinion justified
in the result ; you have the declaration of the French
minister of state, that, without an apology from this
government, the money will not be paid ; and I have
given it as my opinion, that the vane on yonder steeple

HOME A3 FOUND. 119

will not turn more readily than all this policy will be
abandoned, should any thing occur in Europe to render
it necessary, or could the French ministry believe it
possible for this country to fight for a principle. These
are my opinions, in all their phases, and you may com
pare them with facts and judge for yourself."

" It is all General Jackson, sir — all that monster's
doings. But for his message, Mr. Effingham, we should
have had the money long ago."

" But for his message, or some equally decided step,
Mr. Bale, you would never have it."

" Ah, my dear sir, I kno\v your intentions, but I fear
you are prejudiced against that excellent man, the King
of France ! Prejudice, Mr. Effingham, is a sad inno
vator on justice."

Here Mr. Bale shook his head, laughed, and disap
peared in the crowd, perfectly satisfied that John Ef
fingham was a prejudiced man, and that he, himself,
was only liberal and just.

" Now, that is a man who wants for neither abilities
nor honesty, and yet he permits his interests, and the
influence of this very speculating mania, to oversha
dow all his sense of right, facts plain as noon-day, and
the only principles that can rule a country in safety."

" He apprehends war, and has no desire to believe
even facts, so long as they serve to increase the dan
ger.'!

" Precisely so ; for even prudence gets to be a per
verted quality, when men are living under an infatu
ation like that which now exists. These men live like
the fool who says there is no death."

Here the gentlemen rejoined the ladies, and the car
riages drove through a succession of narrow and
crooked streets, that were lined with warehouses filled
with the products of the civilized world.

" Very much of all this is a part of the same la
mentable illusion," said John Effingham, as the car
riages made their way slowly through the encumbered

120 HOME AS FOUND.

streets. " The man who sells his inland lots at a profit,
secured by credit, fancies himself enriched, and he ex
tends his manner of living in proportion ; the boy from
the country becomes a merchant, or what is here called
a merchant, and obtains a credit in Europe a hundred
times exceeding his means, and caters to these fancied
wants ; and thus is every avenue of society thronged
with adventurers, the ephemera of the same wide-spread
spirit of reckless folly. Millions in value pass out of
these streets, that go to feed the vanity of those who
fancy themselves wealthy, because they hold some
ideal pledges for the payment of advances in price
like those mentioned by the auctioneer, and which
have some such security for the eventual payment, as
one can find in calling a thing, that is really worth a
dollar, wrorth a hundred."

" Are the effects of this state of things apparent in
your ordinary associations ?"

" In every thing. The desire to grow suddenly rich
has seized on all classes. Even women and clergymen
are infected, and we exist under the active control of
the most corrupting of all influences — 'the love of
money.' I should despair of the country altogether,
did I not feel certain that the disease is too violent to
last, and entertain a hope that the season of calm re
flection and of repentance, that is to follow, will be in
proportion to its causes."

After taking this view of the town, the party re
turned to Hudson Square, where the baronet dined, it
being his intention to go to Washington on the following
day. The leave-taking in the evening was kind and
friendly ; Mr. Eflingham, who had a sincere regard for
his late fellow-traveller, cordially inviting him to visit
him in the mountains in June.

As Sir George took his leave, the bells began to ring
for a fire. In New- York one gets so accustomed to
these alarms, that near an hour had passed before any
of the Effingham family began to reflect on the long

HOME AS FOU3VD. 121

continuance of the cries. A servant was then sent
out to ascertain the reason, and his report made the
natter more serious than usual.

We believe that in the frequency of these calami
ties, the question lies between Constantinople and New-
York. It is a common occurrence for twenty or thirty
buildings to be burnt down, in the latter place, and for
the residents of the same ward to remain in ignorance
of the circumstance, until enlightened on the fact by
the daily prints; the constant repetition of the alarms
hardening the ear and the feelings against the appeal.
A fire of greater extent than common, had occurred
only a night or two previously to this ; and a rumour
now prevailed, that the severity of the weather, and
the condition of the hoses and engines, rendered the
present danger double. On hearing this intelligence,
the Messrs. Effinghams wrapped themselves up in their
over-coats, and went together into the streets.

" This seems something more than usual, Ned," said
John Effingharn, glancing his eye upward at the lurid
vault, athwart which gleams of fiery light began to
shine ; " the danger is not distant, and it seems se
rious."

Following the direction of the current, they soon
found the scene of the conflagration, which was in the
very heart of those masses of warehouses, or stores,
that John Effingham had commented on, so lately. A
short street of high buildings was already completely
in flames, and the danger of approaching the enemy,
added to the frozen condition of the apparatus, the
exhaustion of the firemen from their previous efforts,
and the intense coldness of the night, conspired to
make the aspect of things in the highest degree
alarming.

The firemen of New-York have that superiority
over those of other places, that the veteran soldier
obtains over the recruit. But the best troops can be
appalled, and, on this memorable occasion, these cele-

VOL. I. 11

122 HOME AS FOUND.

brated firemen, from a variety of causes, became for a
time, little more than passive spectators of the terrible
scene.

There was an hour or two when all attempts at
checking the conflagration seemed really hopeless, and
even the boldest and the most persevering scarcely
knew which way to turn, to be useful. A failure of
water, the numerous points that required resistance,
the conflagration extending in all directions from a
common centre, by means of numberless irregular and
narrow streets, and the impossibility of withstanding
the intense heat, in the choked passages, soon added
despair to the other horrors of the scene.

They who stood the fiery masses, were freezing on
one side with the Greenland cold of the night, while
their bodies were almost blistered with the fierce flames
on the other. There was something frightful in this
contest of the elements, nature appearing to condense
the heat within its narrowest possible limits, as if pur
posely to increase its fierceness. The effects were
awful; for entire buildings would seem to dissolve at
their touch, as the forked flames enveloped them in
sheets of fire.

Every one being afoot, within s.ound of the alarm,
though all the more vulgar cries had ceased, as men
would deem it mockery to cry murder in a battle, Sir
George Templemore met his friends, on the margin of
this sea of fire. It was now drawing towards morn
ing, and the conflagration was at its height, having
already laid waste a nucleus of blocks, and it was
extending by many lines, in every -possible direction.

"Here is a fearful admonition for those who set
their hearts on riches," observed Sir George Temple-
more, recalling the conversation of the previous day.
" What, indeed, are the designs of man, as compared
with the will of Providence !"

" I foresee that this is h commencement de la fin"
returned John Effingham. " The destruction is already

HOME AS FOUND. 123

so great, as to threaten to bring down with it the usual
safe-guards against such losses, and one pin knocked
out of so frail and delicate a fabric, the whole will
become loose, and fall to pieces."

" Will nothing be done to arrest the flames?"

" As men recover from the panic, their plans will
improve and their energies will revive. The wider
streets are already reducing the fire within more cer
tain limits, and they speak of a favourable change of •
wind. It is thought five hundred buildings have already
been consumed, in scarcely half a dozen hours."

That Exchange, which had so lately resembled a
bustling temple of Mammon, was already a dark and
sheeted ruin, its marble walls being cracked, defaced,
tottering, or fallen. It lay on the confines of the ruin,
and our party was enabled to take their position near
it, to observe the scene. All in their immediate vicinity
was assuming the stillness of desolation, while the
flushes of fierce light in the distance marked the pro
gress of the conflagration. Those who knew the
localities, now began to speak of the natural or acci
dental barriers, such as the water, the slips, and the
broader streets, as the only probable means of arrest
ing the destruction. The crackling of the flames grew
distant fast, and the cries of the firemen wrere now
scarcely audible.

At this period in the frightful scene, a party of sea
men arrived, bearing powder, in readiness to blow up
various buildings, in the streets that possessed of them
selves, no sufficient barriers to the advance of the
flame. Led by their officers, these gallant fellows,
carrying in their arms the means of destruction, moved
up steadily to the verge of the torrents of fire, and
planted their kegs ; laying their trains with the hardy
indifference that practice can alone create, and with
an intelligence that did infinite credit to their coolness.
This deliberate courage was rewarded with complete

124 HOME AS POUND.

success, and house crumbled to pieces after house
under the dull explosions, happily without an accident

From this time the flames became less ungovernable
though the day dawned and advanced, and another
night succeeded, before they could be said to be got
fairly under, Weeks, and even months passed, how
ever, ere the smouldering ruins ceased to. send up
smoke, the fierce element continuing to burn, like a
slumbering volcano, as it might be in the bowels of
the earth.

The day that succeeded this disaster, was memora
ble for the rebuke it gave the rapacious longing for
wealth. Men who had set their hearts on gold, and
\vho prided themselves on their possession, and on that
only, were made to feel its insanity ; and they who had
walked abroad as gods, so lately, began to experience
how utterly insignificant are the merely rich, when
stripped of their possessions. Eight hundred buildings,
containing fabrics of every kind, and the raw material
in various forms, had been destroyed, as it were in the
twinkling of an eye.

A faint voice was heard from the pulpit, and there
was a moment when those who remembered a better
state of things, began to fancy that principles would
once more assert their ascendency, and that the com
munity would, in a measure, be purified. But this ex
pectation ended in disappointment, the infatuation being
too wide-spread and corrupting, to be stopped by even
this check, and the rebuke was reserved for a form
that seems to depend on a law of nature, that of
causing a vice to bring with it its own infallible pun
ishment.

HOME AS FOUND. 125

CHAPTER VIII.

"First, tell me, have you ever been at Pisa."

SlIAKSI'EARE.

THE conflagration alluded to, rather than described,
in the proceeding chapter, threw a gloom over the
gaieties of New- York, if that ever could be properly
called gay, which was little more than a strife in pro
digality and parade, and leaves us little more to say
of the events of the winter. Eve regretted very little
the interruption to scenes in which she had found no
pleasure, however much she lamented the cause ; and
she and Grace passed the remainder of the season
quietly, cultivating the friendship of such women as
.Mrs. Hawker and Mrs. Bloomfield, and devoting hours
to the improvement of their minds and tastes, without
ever again venturing however, within the hallowed
precincts of such rooms as those of Mrs. Legend.

One consequence of a state of rapacious infatuation,
like that which we have just related, is the intensity
of selfishness which smothers all recollection of the
past, and all just anticipations of the future, by con
densing life, with its motives and enjoyments, into the
present moment. Captain Truck, therefore, was soon
forgotten, and the literati, as that \vorthy seaman had
termed the associates of Mrs. Legend, remained just
as vapid, as conceited, as ignorant, as imitative, as
dependent, and as provincial as ever.

As the season advanced, our heroine began to look
with longings towards the country. The town life of
an American offers little to one accustomed to a town
life in older and more permanently regulated commu
nities ; and Eve was already heartily weary of crowd
ed and noisy balls, (for a few were still given ;) belles,
the struggles of an uninstructed taste, and a represent-

126 HOME AS FOUND.

ation in which extravagance was so seldom relieved
by the elegance and convenience of a condition of
society, in which more attention is paid to the fitness
of things.

The American spring is the least pleasant of its four
seasons, its character being truly that of " winter lin
gering in the lap of May." Mr. Effingham, who the
reader will probably suspect, by this time, to be a de
scendant of a family of the same name, that, we have
had occasion to introduce into another work, had sent
orders to have his country residence prepared for the
reception of our party ; and it was with a feeling of de
light that Eve stepped on board a steam-boat to escape
from a town that, while it contains so much that is
worthy of any capital, contains so much more that is
unfit for any place, in order to breathe the pure air,
and to enjoy the tranquil pleasure of the country. Sir
George Templemore had returned from his southern
journey, and made one of the party, by express ar
rangement.

" Now, Eve," said Grace Van Cortlandt, as the boat
glided along the wharves, " if it were any person but
you, I should feel confident of having something to
show that would extort admiration."

" You are safe enough, in that respect, for a more
imposing object in its way, than this very vessel, eye
of mine, never beheld. It is positively the only thing
that deserves the name of magnificent I have yet
seen, since our return, — unless, indeed, it may be mag
nificent projects."

" I am glad, dear coz, there is this one magnificent
object, then, to satisfy a taste so fastidious."

As Grace's little foot moved, and her voice betrayed
vexation, the whole party smiled ; for the whole party,
while it felt the justice of Eve's observation, saw the
real feeling that was at the bottom of her cousin's re
mark. Sir George, however, though he could not con
ceal from himself the truth of what had been said by

HOME AS FOUND. 127

the one party, and the weakness betrayed by the other,
had too much sympathy for the provincial patriotism
of one so young and beautiful, not to come to the res
cue.

" You should remember, Miss Van Cortlandt," he
said, " that Miss Effingham has not had the advantage
yet of seeing the Delaware, Philadelphia, the noble
bays of the south, nor so much that is to be found out
of the single town of New-York."

" Very true, and I hope yet to see her a sincere peni
tent for all her unpatriotic admissions against her own
country. You have seen the Capitol, Sir George Tem-
plernore ; is it not, truly, one of the finest edifices of the
world ?"

" You will except St. Peter's, surely, my child," ob
served Mr. Effingham, smiling, for he saw that the
baronet was embarrassed to give a ready answer.

" And the Cathedral at Milan," said Eve, laughing.

" El le Louvre /" cried Mademoiselle Viefville, who
had some such admiration for every thing Parisian,
as Eve had for every thing American.

" And, most especially, the north-east corner of the
south-west end of the north-west wing of Versailles,"
said John Effingham, in his usual dry manner.

" I see you are all against me," Grace rejoined,
"but I hope, one day, to be able to ascertain for my
self the comparative merits of things. As nature makes
rivers, I hope the Hudson, at least, will not be found
unworthy of your admiration, gentlemen and ladies."

" You are safe enough, there, Grace," observed Mr.
Effingham ; " for few rivers, perhaps no river, offers so
great and so pleasing a variety, in so short a distance,
as this."

It was a lovely, bland morning, in the last week of
May ; and the atmosphere was already getting the soft
hues of summer, or assuming the hazy and solemn calm
that renders the season so quiet and soothing, after the
fiercer strife of the elements. 'Under such a sky, the

1

128 HOME AS FOUND.

Palisadoes, in particular, appeared well ; for, though
wanting in the terrific grandeur of an Alpine nature
and perhaps disproportioned to the scenery they adorn
ed, they were bold and peculiar.

The great velocity of the boat added to the charm
of the passage, the scene scarce finding time to pall
on the eye ; for, no sooner was one object examined
in its outlines, than it was succeeded by another.

" An extraordinary taste is afflicting this country, in
the way of architecture," said Mr. Effingham, as they
stood gazing at the eastern shore ; " nothing but a Gre
cian temple being now deemed a suitable residence
for a man, in these classical times. Yonder is a struc
ture, for instance, of beautiful proportions, and, at this
distance, apparently of a precious material, and yet it
seems better suited to heathen worship than to domes
tic comfort."

" The malady has infected the whole nation," re
turned his cousin, " like the spirit of. speculation. We
are passing from one extreme to the other, in this, as
in other things. One such temple, well placed in a
wrood, might be a pleasant object enough, but to see a
river lined with them, with children trundling hoops
before their doors, beef carried into their kitchens, and
smoke issuing, moreover, from those unclassical ob
jects chimnies, is too much even of a high taste ; one
might as well live in a fever. Mr. Arisfabulus Bragg,
who is a wag in his way, informs me that there is one
town in the interior that has actually a market-house
on the plan of the Parthenon !"

" H Capo di Bove would be a more suitable model
for such a structure," said Eve, smiling. " But I think
I have heard that the classical taste of our architects
is any thing but rigid."

" This was the case, rather than is" returned John
Effingham, " as witness all these temples. The coun
try has made a quick and a great pas, en avant, in the
way of the fine arts, and the fact shows what might

:

HOME AS FOUND. 129

be done with so ready a people, under a suitable direc
tion. The stranger who comes among us is apt to
hold the art of the nation cheap, but, as all things are
comparative, let him inquire into its state ten years
since, and look at it to-day. The fault just now, is
perhaps to consult the books too rigidly, and to trust
too little to invention ; for no architecture, and espe
cially no domestic architecture, can ever be above seri
ous reproach, until climate, the uses of the edifice, and
the situation, are respected as leading considerations.
Nothing can be uglier, per se, than a Swiss cottage, or
any thing more beautiful under its precise circum
stances. As regards these mushroom temples, which
are the offspring of Mammon, let them be dedicated
to whom they may, I should exactly reverse the opi
nion, and say, that while nothing can be much more
beautiful, per se, nothing can be in worse taste, than to
put them where they are."

" We shall have an opportunity of seeing what Mr.
John Effingham can do in the way of architecture,"
said Grace, who loved to revenge some of her fancied
wrongs, by turning the tables on her assailant, " for I
understand he has been improving on the original
labours of that notorious Palladio, Master Hirarn Doo-
little !"

The whole party laughed, and every eye was turned
on the gentleman alluded to, expecting his answer.

" You will remember, good people," answered the
accused by implication, " that my plans were handed
over to me from my great predecessor, and that they
were originally of the composite order. If, therefore,
the house should turn out to be a little complex and
mixed, you will do me the justice to remember this
important fact. At all events, I have consulted com
fort; and that I would maintain, in the face of Vitru-
vius himself, is a sine qua non in domestic architec
ture."

" I took a run into Connecticut the other day," said

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HOME AS FOUND.

Sir George Templemore, " and, at a place called New
Haven, I saw the commencement of a taste that bids
fair to make a most remarkable town. It is true, you
cannot expect structures of much pretension in the
\vay of cost and magnitude in this country, but, so far
as fitness and forms are concerned, if what I hear be
true, and the next fifty years do as much in proportion
for that little city, as I understand has been done in the
last five, it will be altogether a wonder in its way.
There are some abortions, it is true, but there are also
some little jewels.'7

The baronet was rewarded for this opinion, by a
smile from Grace, and the conversation changed. As
the boat approached the mountains, Eve became ex
cited, a very American state of the system by the way,
and Grace still more anxious.

" The view of that bluff is Italian ;" said our hero
ine, pointing down the river at a noble headland of
rock, that loomed grandly in the soft haze of the tran
quil atmosphere. " One seldom sees a finer or a softer
outline on the shores of the Mediterranean itself."

" But the Highlands, Eve !" whispered the uneasy
Grace. " We are entering the mountains."

The river narrowed suddenly, and the scenery be
came bolder, but neither Eve nor her father expressed
the rapture that Grace expected.

*•' I must confess, Jack," said the mild, thoughtful Mr.
Effmgham, " that these rocks strike my eyes as much
less imposing than formerly. The passage is fine, be
yond question, but it is hardly grand scenery."

" You never uttered a juster opinion, Ned, though
after your eye loses some of the forms of the Swiss
and Italian lakes, and of the shores of Italy, you wiL
think better of these. The Highlands are remark
able for their surprises, rather than for their grandeur,
as we shall presently see. As to the latter, it is an
affair of feet and inches, and is capable of arithmetical
demonstration. We have often been on lakes, beneath

•HOME AS FOUND. 131

oeetling cliffs of from three to six thousand feet in
height; whereas, here, the greatest elevation is mate
rially less than two. But, Sir George Ternplemore,
and you, Miss Effingham, do me the favour to com
bine your cunning, and tell me whence this stream
cometh, and whither we are to go ?"

The boat had now approached a point where the
river was narrowed to a width not much exceeding a
quarter of a mile, and in the direction in 'which it was
steering, the water seemed to become still more con
tracted until they were lost in a sort of bay, that ap
peared to be closed by high hills, through which, how
ever, there were traces of something like a passage.

" The land in that direction looks as if it had a ra
vine-like entrance," said the baronet ; " and yet it is
scarcely possible that a stream like this can flow
there !"

" If the Hudson truly passes through those moun
tains," said Eve, " I will concede all in its favour that
you can ask, Grace."

" Where else can it pass ?" demanded Grace, exult-
ingly.

" Sure enough — I see no other place, and that seems
insufficient."

The two strangers to the river now looked curiously
around them, in every direction. Behind them was a
broad and lake-like basin, through which they had just
passed ; on the left, a barrier of precipitous hills, the
elevation of which was- scarcely less than a thousand
feet ; on their right, a high but broken country, studded
with villas, farm-houses, and hamlets; and in their
front the deep but equivocal bay mentioned.

" I see no escape !" cried the baronet, gaily, " unless
indeed, it be by returning."

A sudden arid broad sheer of the boat caused him
to turn to the left, and then they whirled round an
angle of the precipice, and found themselves in a reach
of the river, between steep declivities, running at right
angles to their former course.

132 HOME AS FOUND. .

" This is one of the surprises of which I spoke,"
said John Effingham, " and which render the highlands
so unique, ; for, while the Rhine is very sinuous, it has
nothing like this."

The other travellers agreed in extolling this and
many similar features of the scenery, and Grace was
delighted ; for, warm-hearted, affectionate, and true,
Grace loved her country like a relative or a friend,
and took an honest pride in hearing its praises. The
patriotism of Eve, if a word of a meaning so lofty
can be applied to feelings of this nature, was more
discriminating from necessity, her tastes having been
formed in a higher school, and her means of compari
son being so much more ample. At West Point they
stopped for the night, and here every body was in
honest raptures ; Grace, who had often visited the
place before, being actually the least so of the whole
party.

" Now, Eve, I know that you do love your country,"
she said, as she slipped an arm affectionately through
that of her cousin. " This is feeling and speaking like
an American girl, and as Eve Effingham should !"

Eve laughed, but she had discovered that the pro
vincial feeling was so strong in Grace, that its discus
sion wrould probably do no good. She dwelt, there
fore, with sincere eloquence on the beauties of the
place, and for the first time since they had met, her
cousin felt as if there was no longer any point of dis
sension between them.

The following morning was the first of June, and it
was another of those drowsy, dreamy days, that so
much aid a landscape. The party embarked in the
first boat that came up, and as they entered Newburgh
bay, the triumph of the river was established. This is
a spot, in sooth, that has few equals in any region,
though Eve still insisted that the excellence of the
view was in its softness rather than in its grandeur.
The country-houses, or boxes, for few could claim to

HOME AS FOUND. 133

be much more, were neat, well placed, and exceedingly
numerous. The heights around the town of Newburgh,
in particular, were fairly dotted with them, though Mr.
Eftingharn shook his head as he saw one Grecian tem
ple appear after another.

" As we recede from the influence of the vulgar
architects," he said, " we find imitation taking the
place of instruction. • Many of these buildings are
obviously disproportioned, and then, like vulgar pre
tension of any sort, Grecian architecture produces less
pleasure than even Dutch."

" I am surprised at discovering how little of a Dutch
character remains in this state," said the baronet ; " I
can scarcely trace that people in any thing, and yet, I
believe, they had the moulding of your society, having
carried the colony through its infancy."

" When you know us better, you will be surprised
at discovering how littb of any thing remains a
dozen years," returned John Effingham. " Our towns
pass away in generations like their people, and even
the names of a place undergo periodical mutations, as
well as every thing else. It is getting to be a pre
dominant feeling in the American nature, I fear, to
love change."

" But, cousi-n Jack, do you not overlook causes, in
your censure. That a nation advancing as fast as this
in wealth and numbers, should desire better structures
than its fathers had either the means or the taste to
build, and that names should change with persons, are
both things quite in rule."

" A.11 very true, though it does not account for the
peculiarity I mean. Take Templeton, for instance ;
this little place has not essentially increased in num
bers, within my memory, and yet fully one-half its
names are new. When he reaches his own home, your
father will not know even the names of one-half his
neighbours. Not only will he meet with new faces,
but he will find new feelings, new opinions in the place

VOL. I. 12

134 HOME AS FOUND.

of traditions that he may love, an indifference to every
thing but the present moment, and even those who may
have better feelings, and a \vish to cherish all that be
longs to the holier sentiments of man, afraid to utter
them, lest they meet with no sympathy."

" No cats, as Mr. Bragg would say."

" Jack is one who never paints en beau," said Mr.
Effingham. " I should be very sorry to believe that a
dozen short years can have made all these essential
changes in my neighbourhood."

" A dozen years, Ned ! You name an age. Speak
of three or four, if you wish to find any thing in
America where you left it! The whole country is in
such a constant state of mutation, that I can only
liken it to that game of children, in W7hich as one quits
his corner, another runs into it, and he that finds no
corner to get into, is the laughing-stock of the others.
Fancy that dwelling the residence of one man from
childhood to old age ; let him then quit it for a year
or two, and on his return he would find another in
possession, who would treat him as an impertinent
intruder, because he had been absent two years. An
American ' always/ in the way of usages, extends no
further back than eighteen months. In short, every
thing is condensed into the present moment ; and ser
vices, character, for evil as well as good unhappily,
and all other things, cease to have w7eight, except as
they influence the interests of the day."

" This is the colouring of a professed cynic," ob
served Mr. Effingham, smiling.

" But the law, Mr. John Effingham," eagerly in
quired the baronet — " surely the law would not permit
a. stranger to intrude in this manner on the rights of
an owner."

" The law-books would do him that friendly office,
perhaps, but what is a precept in the face of practices
so ruthless. <Les absents out toujours tort,' is a maxim
of peculiar application in America."

HOME AS FOUND. 135

"Property is as secure in this country as in any
other, Sir George ; and you will make allowances for
the humours of the present annotator."

" Well, well, Ned ; I hope you will find every thing
couleur de rose, as you appear to expect. You will get
quiet possession of your house, it is true, for I have
put a Cerberus in it, that is. quite equal to his task,
difficult as it may be, and who has quite as much
relish for a bill of costs, as any squatter can have for
a trespass ; but without some such guardian of your
rights, I would not answer for it, that you would not
be compelled to sleep in the high-way."

" I trust Sir George Templemore knows how to
make allowances for Mr. John Effingham's pictures,"
cried Grace, unable to refrain from expressing her
discontent any longer.

A laugh succeeded, and the beauties of the river again
attracted their attention. As the boat continued to as
cend, Mr. Effingham triumphantly affirmed that the
appearance of things more than equalled his expecta
tions, while both Eve and the baronet declared that a
succession of lovelier landscapes could hardly be pre
sented to the eye.

" Whited sepulchres !" muttered John Effingham —
" all outside. Wait until you get a view of the de
formity within."

As the boat approached Albany, Eve expressed her
satisfaction in still stronger terms ; and Grace was
made perfectly happy, by hearing her and Sir George
declare that the place entirely exceeded their expecta
tions.

" I am glad to find, Eve, that you are so fast recover
ing your American feelings," said her beautiful cousin,
after one of those expressions of agreeable disappoint
ment, as they were seated at a late dinner, in an inn.
" You have at last found words to praise the exterior
of Albany ; and I hope, by the time we return, you
will be disposed to see New-York with different eyes."

136 HOME AS FOUND.

" I expected to see a capital in New- York, Grace,
and in this I have been grievously disappointed. In
stead of finding the tastes, tone, conveniences, archi
tecture, streets, churches, shops, and society of a capi
tal, I found a huge expansion of common-place things,
a commercial town, and the most mixed and the least
regulated society, that I. had ever met with. Expect
ing so much, where so little was found, disappointment
was natural. But in Albany, although a political capi
tal, I knew the nature of the government too well, to
expect more than a provincial town ; and in this
respect, 1 have found one much above the level of
similar places in other parts of the world. I acknow
ledge that Albany has as much exceeded my expecta
tions in one sense, as New- York has fallen short of
them in another."

" In this simple fact, Sir George Templemore," said
Mr. Effingham, " you may read the real condition of
the country. In all that requires something more than
usual, a deficiency ; in all that is deemed an average,
better than common. The tendency is to raise every
thing that is elsewhere degraded to a respectable
height, when there commences an attraction of gravi
tation that draws all towards the centre ; a little closer
too, than could be wished perhaps."

" Ay, ay, Ned ; this is very pretty, with your attrac
tions and gravitations ; but wait and judge for your
self of this average, of which you now speak so com
placently.

" Nay, John, I borrowed the image from you ; if it
be not accurate, I shall hold you responsible for its
defects."

" They tell me," said Eve, "that all American vil
lages are the towns in miniature ; children dressed in
hoops and wigs. Is this so, Grace?"

" A little ; there is too much desire to imitate the
towns, perhaps, and possibly too little feeling for coun
try life."

HOME AS FOUND. 137

" This is a very naturc.1 consequence, after all, of
people's living entirely in such places," observed Sir
George Templemore. "One sees much of this on the
continent of Europe, because the country population
is purely a country population ; and less of it in Eng
land, perhaps, because those who are at the head of
society, consider town and country as very distinct
things."

" La campagne est vraiment delicieuse en Jlme-
rique" exclaimed Mademoiselle Viefville, in whose
eyes the whole country was little more than campagne.

The next morning, our travellers proceeded by the
way of Schenectady, whence they ascended the beau
tiful valley of the Mohawk, by means of a canal-boat,
the cars that now rattle along its length not having
commenced their active flights, at that time. With the
scenery, every one was delighted ; for while it differed
essentially from that the party had passed through the
previous day, it was scarcely less beautiful.

At a point where the necessary route diverged from
the direction of the canal, carriages of Mr. Effing-
ham's were in readiness to receive the travellers, and
here they were also favoured by the presence of Mr.
Bragg, who fancied such an attention might be agree
able to the young ladies, as well as to his employer.

CHAPTER IX.

' Tell me, where is fancy bred —
Or in the heart, or in the head ?
How begot, how nourished ?"

SONG IN SHAKSPEARE.

THE travellers were several hours ascending into the
mountains, by a country road that could scarcely be
surpassed by a French wheel-track of the same sort,
12*

138 HOME AS FOUND.

for Mademoiselle Viefville protested, twenty times in
the course of the morning, that it was a thousand pities
Mr. Effingham had not the privilege of the corvee, that
he might cause the approach to his terres to be kept in
better condition. At length they reached the summit,
a point where the waters began to flow south, when
the road became tolerably level. From this time their
progress became more rapid, and they continued to
advance two or three hours longer at a" steady pace.

Aristabulus now informed his companions that, in
obedience to instructions from John Effingham, he had
ordered the coachmen to take a road that led a little
from the direct line of their journey, and that they had
now been travelling for some time on the more ancient
route to Templeton.

" I was aware of this," said Mr. Effingham, " though
ignorant of the reason. We are on the great western
turnpike."

" Certainly, sir, and all according to Mr. John's re
quest. There would have been a great saving in dis
tance, and agreeably to my notion, in horse-flesh, haa
we quietly gone down the banks of the lake."

"Jack Vvill explain his own meaning," returned Mr,
Effingham, " and he has stopped the other carriage,
and alighted with Sir George, — a hint, I fancy, that we
are to follow their example."

Sure enough, the second carriage was now stopped,
and Sir George hastened to open its door.

" Mr. John Effingham, who acts as cicerone," cried
the baronet, " insists that every one shall put pied ti
terre at this precise spot, keeping the important reason
still a secret, in the recesses of his own bosom."

The ladies complied, and the carriages were ordered
to proceed with the domestics, leaving the rest of the
travellers by themselves, apparently in the heart of a
forest. ^

" It is to%e hoped, Mademoiselle, there are no ban
ditti in America," said Eve, as they looked around

HOME AS FOUND. 139

them at the novel situation in which they were placed,
apparently by a pure caprice of her cousin.

" On des sauuages" returned the governess, who, in
spite of her ordinary intelligence and great good sense,
had several times that day cast uneasy and stolen
glances into the bits of dark wood they had occasion
ally passed.

" I will ensure your purses and your scalps, mes-
dames" cried John Effingham gaily, " on condition
that you will follow me implicitly ; and by way of
pledge for my faith, I solicit the honour of supporting
Mademoiselle Viefville on this unworthy arm."

The governess laughingly accepted the conditions,
Eve took the arm of her father, and Sir George offered
his to Grace ; Aristabulus, to his surprise, being left to
walk entirely alone. It struck him, however, as so sin
gularly improper that a young lady should be supported
Dn such an occasion by her own father, that he frankly
and gallantly proposed to Mr. Effingham to relieve
him of his burthen, an offer that was declined with
quite as much distinctness as it was made.

" I suppose cousin Jack has a meaning to his melo
drama," said Eve, as they entered the forest, "and I
dare say, dearest father, that you are behind the scenes,
though I perceive determined secrecy in your face."

"John may have a cave to show us, or some tree of
extraordinary height ; such things existing in the
country.'**

" We are very confiding, Mademoiselle, for I detect
treachery in every face around us. Even Miss Van
Cortlandt has the air of a conspirator, and seems to be
in league with something or somebody. Pray Heaven,
it be not with wolves."

"Des loups1" exclaimed Mademoiselle Viefville,
stopping short, with a mien so alarmed as to excite a
general laugh — " est ce qu'il y a des loups et des san-
gliers dans cette foret?"

" No, Mademoiselle," returned her companion — "this

140 HOME AS FOUND.

is only barbarous America, and not civilized France
Were we in k departement de la Seine, we might ap
prehend some such dangers, but being merely in the
mountains of Otsego, we are reasonably safe."

"Jel'espere" murmured the governess, as she re
luctantly and distrustfully proceeded, glancing her
eyes incessantly to the right, and left. The path now
became steep and rather difficult ; so much so, indeed,
as to indispose them all to conversation. It led be
neath the branches of lofty pines, though there existed,
on every side of them, proofs of the ravages man had
committed in that noble forest. At length they were
compelled to stop for breath, after having ascended
considerably above the road they had left.

" I ought to have said that the spot where we entered
on this path, is memorable in the family history," ob
served John Effingham, to Eve — " for it was the pre
cise spot where one of our predecessors lodged a shot
in the shoulder of another."

" Then I know precisely where we are !" cried our
heroine, " though I cannot yet imagine why we are led
into this forest, unless it be to visit some spot hallowed
by a deed of Natty Bumppo's !"

" Time will solve this mystery, as well as all others.
Let us proceed."

Again they ascended, and, after a few more minutes
of trial, they reached a sort of table-land, and drew
near an opening in the trees, where a small Circle had
evidently been cleared of its wood, though it was
quite small and untilled. Eve looked curiously about
her, as did all the others to whom the place was novel,
and she was lost in doubt.

" There seems to be a void beyond us," said the
baronet—" I rather think Mr. John Effingham has led
us to the verge of a view."

At this suggestion the party moved on in a body,
and were well rewarded for the toil of the ascent," by a
coup d^cbil that was almost Swiss in character and
beauty.

HOME AS FOUND. 141

" Now do I know where we are," exclaimed Eve,
clasping her hands in rapture — " this is the « Vision,'
and yonder, indeed, is our blessed home !"

The whole artifice of the surprise was exposed, and
after the first bursts of pleasure had subsided, all to
whom the scene was novel felt, that they would not
have missed this piquante introduction to the valley of
the Susquehannah, on any account. That the reader
may understand the cause of so much delight, and
why John Effingham had prepared this scene for his
friends, we shall stop to give a short description of the
objects that first met the eyes of the travellers.

It is known that they were in a small open spot in a
forest, and on the verge of a precipitous mountain.
The trees encircled them on every side but one, and
on that lay the panorama, although the tops of tall
pines, that grew in lines almost parallel to the declivity,
rose nearly to a level with the eye. Hundreds of feet
beneath them, directly in front, and stretching leagues
to the right, was a lake embedded in woods and hills.
On the side next the travellers, a fringe of forest broke
the line of water ; tree tops that intercepted the view
of the shores ; and on the other, high broken hills, or
low mountains rather, that were covered with farms,
beautifully relieved by patches of wood, in a way to
resemble the scenery of a vast park, or a royal plea
sure ground, limited the landscape. High valleys lay
among these uplands, and in every direction comforta
ble dwellings dotted the fields. The contrast between
the dark hues of the evergreens, with which all the
heights near the water were shaded, was in soft con
trast to the livelier green of the other foliage, while the
meadows and pastures were luxuriant with a verdure
unsurpassed by that of England. Bays and points
added to the exquisite outline of the glassy lake on this
shore, while one of the former withdrew towards the
north-west, in a way to leave the eye doubtful whether
\t was the termination of the transparent sheet 01 not

142 HOME AS FOUND.

Towards the south, bold, varied, but cultivated hills,
also bounded the view, all teeming with the fruits of
human labour, and yet all relieved by pieces of wood,
:n the way already mentioned, so as to give the entire
region the character of park scenery. A wide, deep,
even valley, commenced at the southern end of the
lake, or nearlv opposite to the stand of our travellers,
and stretched away south, until concealed by a curva
ture in the ranges of the mountains. Like all the
mountain-tops, this valley was verdant, peopled, wood
ed in places, though less abundantly than the hills, and
teeming with the signs of life. Roads \vound through
its peaceful retreats, and might be traced working their
way along the glens, and up the weary ascents of the
mountains, for miles, in every direction.

At the northern termination of this lovely valley,
and immediately on the margin of the lake, lay the
village of Ternpleton, immediately under the eyes of
the party. The distance, in an air line, from their
stand to the centre of the dwellings, could not be much
less than a mile, but the air was so pure, and the day
so calm, that it did not seem so far. The children ancl
even the dogs were seen running about the streets,
while the shrill cries of boys at their gambols, ascend
ed distinctly to the ear.

As this was the Templeton of the Pioneers, and the
progress of society during half a century is connected
with the circumstance, we shall give the reader a more
accurate notion of its present state, than can be ob
tained from incidental allusions. We undertake the
office more readily because this is not one of those
places that shoot up in a day, under the unnatural
efforts of speculation, or which, favoured by peculiar
advantages in the way of trade, becomes a precocious
city, while the stumps still stand in its streets ; but a
sober county town, that has advanced steadily, pari
passu with the surrounding country, and offers a fair
specimen of the more regular advancement of the
whole nation, in its progress towards civilization.

HOME AS FOUND. 143

The appearance of Templeton, as seen from the
height where it is now exhibited to the reader, was ge
nerally beautiful and map-like. There might be a do
zen streets, principally crossing each other at right-
angles, though sufficiently relieved from this precise
delineation, to prevent a starched formality. Perhaps
the greater part of the buildings were painted white, as
is usual in the smaller American towns ; though a better
taste was growing in the place, and many of the dwell
ings had the graver and chaster hues of the grey-
stones of which they were built. A general air of
neatness and comfort pervaded the place, it being as
unlike a continental European town, south of the Rhine,
in this respect, as possible, if indeed we except the pic
turesque bourgs of Switzerland. In England, Temple-
ton would be termed a small market-towrn, so far as
size was concerned; in France, a large bourg ; while
in America it was, in common parlance, and legal ap
pellation, styled a village.

Of the dwellings of the place, fully twenty were of
a quality that denoted ease in the condition of their oc
cupants, and bespoke the habits of those accustomed
to live in a manner superior to the oi polloi of the hu
man race. Of these, some six or eight had small lawns,
carriage sweeps, and the other similar appliances of
houses that were not deemed unworthy of the honour
of bearing names of their own. No less than five lit
tle steeples, towers, or belfries, for neither word is ex
actly suitable to the architectural prodigies we wish to
describe, rose above the roofs, denoting the sites of the
same number of places of worship; an American vil
lage usually exhibiting as many of these proofs of lib
erty of conscience — caprices of conscience would per
haps be a better term — as dollars and cents will by
any process render attainable. Several light carriages,
such as were suitable to a mountainous country, were
passing to and fro in the streets ; and, here and there,
a single-horse vehicle was fastened before the door of

144 HOME AS FOUND.

a shop, or a lawyer's office, denoting the presence of
some customer, or client, from among the adjacent
hills.

Templeton was not sufficiently a thoroughfare to
possess one of those monstrosities, a modern American
tavern, or a structure whose roof should overtop that
of all its neighbours. Still its inns were of respectable
size, well piazzaed, to use a word of our own inven
tion, and quite enough frequented.

Near the centre of the place, in grounds of rather
limited extent, still stood that model of the composite
order, which owed its existence to the combined know
ledge and taste, in the remoter ages of the region, of
Mr. Richard Jones and Mr. Hiram Doolittle. We
will not say that it had been modernized, for the very
reverse was the effect, in appearance at least ; but, it
had since undergone material changes, under the more
instructed intelligence of John Effinsjham.

This building was so conspicuous by position and
size, that as soon as they had taken in glimpses of the
entire landscape, which was not done without constant
murmurs of pleasure, every eye became fastened on it,
as the focus of interest. A long and common silence
denoted how general was this feeling, and the whole
party took seats on stumps and fallen trees before a
syllable was uttered, after the building had attracted
their gaze. Aristabulus alone permitted his look to
wander, and he was curiously examining the counte
nance of Mr. Effingham, near whom he sate, with a
longing to discover whether the expression was that of
approbation, or of disapprobation, of the fruits of his
cousin's genius.

" Mr. John Effingham has considerably regenerated
and revivified, not to say transmogrified, the old dwell
ing," he said, cautiously using terms that might leave
his own opinion of the changes doubtful. " The
work of his hand has excited some speculation,
a good deal of inquiry, and a little conversation,

HOME AS FOUND. 145

throughout the country. It has almost produced an
excitement !"

" As my house came to me from rny father," said
Mr. Eflingham, across whose mild and handsome face
a smile was gradually stealing, " I knew its history,
and when called on for an explanation of its singulari
ties, could refer all to the composite order. But, you,
Jack, have supplanted all this, by a style of your own,
for which I shall be compelled to consult the authori
ties for explanations."

" Do you dislike my taste, Ned 1 — To my eye, now,
the structure has no bad appearance from this spot !"

"Fitness and comfort are indispensable requisites
for domestic architecture, to use your own argument.
Are you quite sure that yonder castellated roof, for in
stance, is quite suited to the deep snows of these moun
tains?"

John Effingham whistled, and endeavoured to look
unconcerned, for he well knew that the very first win
ter had demonstrated the unsuitableness of his plans
for such a climate. He had actually felt disposed to
cause the whole to be altered privately, at his own ex
pense ; but, besides feeling certain his cousin would
resent a liberty that inferred his indisposition to
pay for his own buildings, he had a reluctance to ad
mit, in the face of the whole country, that he had made
so capital a mistake, in a branch of art in which he
prided himself rather more than common ; almost as
much as his predecessor in the occupation, Mr. Rich
ard Jones.

" If you are not pleased with your own dwelling,
Ned," he answered, " you can have, at least, the con
solation of looking at some of your neighbours' houses,
and of perceiving that they are a great deal worse oft'.
Of all abortions of this sort, to my taste, a Grecian
abortion is the worst — mine is only Gothic, and that
too, in a style so modest, that I should think it might
pass unmolested."
VOL. I. 13

146 HOME AS FOUND.

It was so unusual to see John Effingham on the de
fensive, that the whole party smiled, while Aristabulus;
who stood in salutary fear of his caustic tongue, both
smiled and wondered.

" Nay, do not mistake me, John," returned the pro-
prietor of the edifice under discussion — " it is not your
taste that I call in question, but your provision against
the seasons. In the way of mere outward show, I really
think you deserve high praise, for you have trans
formed a very ugly dwelling into one 'that is almost
handsome, in despite of proportions and the necessity
of regulating the alterations by prescribed limits. Still,
I think, there is a little of the composite left about
even the exterior."

" I hope, cousin Jack, you have not innovated on the
interior," cried Eve; "for I think I shall remember
that, and nothing is more pleasant than the cattism of
seeing objects that you remember in childhood — plea
sant, I mean, to those whom the mania of mutation has
not affected."

" Do not be alarmed, Miss Effingham," replied her
kinsman, with a pettishness of manner that was alto
gether extraordinary, in a man whose mien, in com
mon, was so singularly composed and masculine ;
" you will find all that you knew, when a kitten, in its
proper place. I could not rake together, again, the
ashes of Queen Dido, which were scattered to the four
winds of Heaven, I fear ; nor could I discover a rea
sonably good bust of .Homer ; but respectable substi
tutes are provided, and some of them have the great
merit of puzzling all beholders to tell to whom they
belong, which I believe was the great characteristic
of most of Mr. Jones's invention."

" I am glad to see, cousin Jack, that you have, at
least, managed to give a very respectable 'cloud-
colour' to the whole house."

" Ay, it lay between that and an invisible green,*
the gentleman answered, losing his momentary spleen

HOME AS FOUND. 147

in his natural love of the ludicrous — " but finding that
the latter would be only too conspicuous in the
droughts that sometimes prevail in this climate, I
settled down into the yellowish drab, that is, indeed,
not unlike some of the richer volumes of the clouds."

" On the whole, I think you are fairly entitled, as
Steadfast Dodge, Esquire, would say, to ' the meed of
our thanks.'"

"What a lovely spot!" exclaimed Mr. Effingham,
who had already ceased to think of his own dwelling,
and whose eye was roaming over the soft landscape,
athwart which the lustre of a June noontide was
throwing its richest glories. " This is truly a place
where one might fancy repose and content were to be
found for the evening of a troubled life."

"Indeed, I have seldom looked upon a more be
witching scene," answered the baronet. " The lakes
of Cumberland will scarce compete with this !"

" Or that of Brienz, or Lungeren, or Nemi," said
Eve, smiling in a way that the other understood to be
a hit at his nationality.

" C'est charmant!" murmured Mademoiselle Vief-
ville. " On pense a I'eternite, dans une idle calme /"

"The farm you can see lying near yonder wood,
Mr. Effingham," coolly observed Aristabulus, " sold
last spring for thirty dollars the acre, and was bought
for twenty, the summer before !"

" Chacun &, son gout!" said Eve.

" And yet, I fear, this glorious scene is marred by
the envy, rapacity, uncharitableness, and all the other
evil passions of man !" continued the more philosophi
cal Mr. Effingham. " Perhaps, it were better as it was
so lately, when it lay in the solitude and peace of the
wilderness, the resort of birds and beasts."

" Who prey on each other, dearest father, just as
the worst of our own species prey on their fellows."

" True, child — true. And yet, I never gaze on one
of these scenes of holy calm, without wishing that the

148 HOME AS POUND.

great tabernacle of nature might be tenanted only by
those who have a feeling for its perfection."

"Do you see the lady," said Aristabulus, "that is
just coming out on the lawn, in front of the « Wig
wam ]' " for that was the name John Effingham had
seen fit to give the altered and amended abode.
" Here, Miss Effingham, more in a line with the top
of the pine beneath us."

" I see the person you mean ; she seems to be look
ing in this direction."

" You are quite right, miss ; she knows that we are
to stop on the Vision, and no doubt sees us. That lady
is your father's cook, Miss Effingham, and is thinking
of the late breakfast that has been ordered to be in
readiness against our arrival."

Eve concealed her amusement, for, by this time,
she had discovered that Mr. Bragg had a way peculiar
to himself, or at least to his class, of using many of the
commoner words of the English language. It would
perhaps be expecting too much of Sir George Tem-
plemore, not to expect him to smile, on such an occa
sion.

" Ah !" exclaimed Aristabulus, pointing towards the
lake, across which several skiffs were stealing, some in
one direction, and some in another, "there is a boat
out, that I think must contain the poet."

" Poet !" repeated John Effingham. " Have we
reached that pass at Templeton 1"

" Lord, Mr. John Effingham, you must have very
contracted notions of the place, if you think a poet a
great novelty in it. Why, sir, we have caravans of
wild beasts, nearly every summer !"

" This is, indeed, a step in advance, of which I was
ignorant. Here then, in a region, that so lately was
tenanted by beasts of prey, beasts are already brought
as curiosities. You perceive the state of the country ii?
this fact, Sir George Templemore."

HOME AS FOUND. 149

" I do indeed ; but I should like to hear from Mr.
Bragg, what sort of animals are in these caravans ?"

" All sorts, from monkeys to elephants. The last
had a rhinoceros."

" Rhinoceros ! — Why there was but one, lately, in
all Europe. Neither the Zoological Gardens, nor the
Jar din des Picmtes, had a rhinoceros ! I never saw
but one, and that was in a caravan at Rome, that
travelled between St. Petersburgh and Naples."

" Well, sir, we have rhinoceroses here ; — and mon
keys, and zebras, and poets, and painters, and congress
men, and bishops, and governors, and all other sorts
of creatures."

" And who may the particular poet be, Mr. Bragg,"
Eve asked/' who honours Templeton, with his presence
just at this moment ?"

" That is more than I can tell you, miss, for, though
some eight or ten of us have done little else than try to
discover his name for the last week, we have not got
even as far as that one fact. He and the gentleman
who travels with him, are both uncommonly close on
such matters, though I think we have some as good
catechisers in Templeton, as can be found any where
within fifty miles of us !"

" There is another gentleman with him — do you
suspect them both of being poets ?"

" Oh, no, Miss, the other is the waiter of the poet ;
that we know, as he serves him at dinner, and other
wise superintends his concerns ; such as brushing his
clothes, and keeping his room in order."

" This is being in luck for a poet, for they are of a
class that are a little apt to neglect the decencies. May
I ask why you suspect the master of being a poet, if
the man be so assiduous ?"

" Why, what else can he be ? In the first place, Miss
Effingham, he has no name."

That is a reason in point,'' said John Effingham ,-
very few poets having names."
13*

150 HOME AS FOUND.

" Then he is out on the lake half his time, gazing
up at the * Silent Pine,' or conversing with the 'Speak
ing Rocks,' or drinking at the ' Fairy Spring.' "

" All suspicious, certainly ; especially the dialogue
with the rocks ; though not absolutely conclusive."

" But, Mr. John Eilingham, the man does not take
his food like other people. He rises early, and is out
on the water, or up in the forest, all the morning, and
then returns to eat his breakfast in the middle of the
forenoon ; he goes into the woods again, or on the lake,
and comes back to dinner, just as I take my tea."

" This settles the matter. Any man who presumes
to do all this, Mr. Bragg, deserves to be called by some
harder name, even, than that of a poet. Pray, sir,
how long has this eccentric person been a resident of
Templeton ?"

" Hist — there he is, as I am a sinner ; and it was not
he and the other gentlemen that were in the boat."

The rebuked manner of Aristabulus, and the drop
ping of his voice, induced the whole party to look in
the direction of his eye, and, sure enough, a gentleman
approached them, in the dress a man of the world is
apt to assume in the country, an attire of itself that
was sufficient to attract comment in a place where the
general desire was to be as much like town as possible,
though it was sufficiently neat and simple. He came
from the forest, along the table-land that crowned the
mountain for some distance, following one of the foot
paths that the admirers of the beautiful landscape have
made all over that pleasant wood. As he came out
into the cleared spot, seeing it already in possession
of a party, he bowed, and was passing on, with a deli
cacy that Mr. Bragg would be apt to deem eccentric,
when suddenly stopping, he gave a look of intense and
eager interest at the whole party, smiled, advanced
rapidly nearer, and discovered his entire person.

" I ought not to be surprised," he said, as he advanced
so near as to render doubt any longer impossible, " for

HOME AS FOUND. 151

1 knew you were expected, and indeed waited for your
arrival, and yet this meeting has been so unexpected
as to leave me scarcely in possession of my faculties."

It is needless to dwell upon the warmth and number
of the greetings. To the surprise of Mr. Bragg, his
poet was not only known, but evidently much esteemed
by all the party, with the exception of Miss Van Cort-
landt, to whom he was cordially presented by the name
of Mr. Powis. Eve managed, by an effort o*f womanly
pride, to suppress the violence of her emotions, and the
meeting passed off as one of mutual surprise and plea
sure, without any exhibition of unusual feeling to at
tract comment.

" We ought to express our wonder at finding you
here before us, my dear young friend," said Mr. Effing-
ham, still holding Paul's hand affectionately between
his own ; " and, even now, that my own eyes assure
me of the fact, I can hardly believe you would arrive
at New- York, and quit it, without giving us the satis
faction of seeing you."

" In that, sir, you are not wrong ; certainly nothing
could have deprived me of that pleasure, but the know
ledge that it would not have been agreeable to your
selves. My sudden appearance here, however, will be
without mystery, when I tell you that I returned from
England, by the way of Quebec, the Great Lakes, and
the Falls, having been induced by my friend Ducie to
take that route, in consequence of his ship's being sent
to the St. Lawrence. A desire for novelty, and par
ticularly a desire to see the celebrated cataract, which
is almost the lion of America, did the rest."

" We are glad to have you with us on any terms,
and I take it as particularly kind, that you did not pass
my door. You have been here some days ?"

" Quite a week. OnreachingUtica I diverged from the
great route to see this place, not anticipating the plea
sure of meeting you here so early ; but hearing you were
expected, I determined to remain, with a hope, which I

152 HOME AS FOUND.

rejoice to find was not vain, that you would not be
sorry to see an old fellow-traveller again."

Mr. Effingham pressed his hands warmly again, be
fore he relinquished them ; an assurance of welcome
that Paul received with thrilling satisfaction.

"I have been in Templeton almost long enough,"
the young man resumed, laughing, " to set up as a can
didate for the public favour, if I rightly understand the
claims of a denizen. By what I can gather from ca
sual remarks, the old proverb that * the new broom
sweeps clean' applies with singular fidelity throughout
all this region."

•' Have you a copy of your last ode, or a spare epi
gram, in your pocket ?" inquired John Effingham.

Paul looked surprised, and Aristabulus, for a novelty,
was a little dashed. Paul looked surprised, as a mat
ter of course, for, although he had been a little annoyed
by the curiosity that is apt to haunt a village imagina
tion, since his arrival in Templeton, he did not in the
least suspect that his love of a beautiful nature had
been imputed to devotion to the muses. Perceiving,
however, by the smiles of those around him, that there
was more meant than was expressed, he had the tact
to permit the explanation to come from the person wrho
had put the question, if it were proper it should come
at all.

" We will defer the great pleasure that is in reserve,"
continued John Effingham, " to another time. At pre
sent, it strikes me that the lady of the lawn is getting
to be impatient, and the dejeuner a la fourchette, that I
have had the precaution to order, is probably waiting
our appearance. It must be eaten, though under the
penalty of being thought moon-struck rhymers by the
whole State. Come, Ned ; if you are sufficiently satis
fied with looking at the Wigwam in a bird's-eye view,
we will descend and put its beauties to the severer test
of a close examination."

This proposal was readily accepted, though all tore

HOME AS FOUND. 153

themselves from that lovely spot with reluctance, and
Tiot until they had paused to take another look.

"Fancy the shores of this lake lined with villas,"
said Eve, " church-towers raising their dark heads
among these hills; each mountain crowned with a
castle, or a crumbling ruin, and all the other accesso
ries of an old state of society, and what would then
be the charms of the view !"

" Less than they are to-day, Miss Effingham," said
Paul Powis; "for though poetry requires — you all
smile, is it forbidden to touch on such subjects ?"

"Not at all, so it be done in wholesome rhymes,"
returned the baronet. " You ought to know that you
are expected even to speak in doggerel."

Paul ceased, and the whole party walked away from
the place, laughing and light-hearted.

CHAPTER X.

' It is the spot, I came to seek,
My father's ancient burial place —

It is the spot — I know it well,
Of which our old traditions tell."

BRYANT.

FROM the day after their arrival in New-York, or
that on which the account of the arrests by the En
glish cruiser had appeared in the journals, little had
been said by any of our party concerning Paul Powis,
or of the extraordinary manner in which he had left
the packet, at the very moment she was about to enter
her haven. It is true that Mr. Dodge, arrived at
Dodgeopolis, had dilated on the subject in his hebdo
madal, with divers additions and conjectures of his
own, and this, too, in a way to attract a good deal of
attention in the interior ; but, it being a rule with those

154 HOME AS FOUND.

who are supposed to dwell at the fountain of foreign
intelligence, not to receive any thing from those who
ought not to be better informed than themselves, the
Eiiinghams and their friends had never heard of hia
account of the matter.

While all thought the incident of the sudden return
extraordinary, no one felt disposed to judge the young
man harshly. The gentlemen knew that military cen
sure, however unpleasant, did not always imply moral
unworthiness ; and as for the ladies, they retained too
lively a sense of his skill and gallantry, to wish to
imagine evil on grounds so slight and vague. Still, it
had been impossible altogether to prevent the obtrusion
of disagreeable surmises, and all now sincerely rejoiced
at seeing their late companion once more among them,
seemingly in a state of mind that announced neither
guilt nor degradation.

On quitting the mountain, Mr. Effingham, who had
a tender regard for Grace, offered her his arm as he
would have given it to a second daughter, leaving Eve
to the care of John Effingham. Sir George attended
to Mademoiselle Viefville, and Paul walked by the side
of our heroine and her cousin, leaving Aristabulus to
be what he himself called a " miscellaneous compa
nion;" or, in other words, to thrust himself into either
set, as inclination or accident might induce. Of course
the parties conversed as they walked, though those in
advance would occasionally pause to say a word to
those in the rear ; and, as they descended, one or two
changes occurred to which we may have occasion to
allude.

" I trust you have had pleasant passages," said John
Effingham to Paul, as soon as they were separated in
the manner just mentioned. " Three trips across the
Atlantic in so short a time would be hard duty to a
landsman, though you, as a sailor, will probably think
less of it."

" In this respect I have been fortunate ; the Foam

HOME AS FOUND. 155

as we know from experience, being a good traveller,
and Ducie is altogether a fine fellow and an agreeable
messmate. You know I had him for a companion
both going and coming."

This was said naturally ; and, while it explained so
little directly, it removed all unpleasant uncertainty,
by assuring his listeners that he had been on good terms
at least, with the person who had seemed to be his
pursuer. John Effingham, too, wrell understood that
no one messed with the commander of a vessel of
war, in his own ship, who was, in any way, thought
to be an unfit associate.

" You have made a material circuit to reach us, the
distance by Quebec being nearly a fourth more than
the direct road."

" Ducie desired it so strongly, that I did not like to
deny him. Indeed, he made it a point, at first, to obtain
permission to land rne at New-York, where he had
found me, as he said ; but to this I would not listen, as
I feared it might interfere with his promotion, of which
he stood so good a chance, in conscience of his suc
cess in the affair of the money. By keeping constantly
before the eyes of his superiors, on duty of interest, I
thought his success would be more certain."

" And has his government thought his perseverance
in the chase worthy of such a reward ?"

" Indeed it has. He is now a post, and all owing to
his good luck and judgment in that affair ; though in
his country, rank in private life does no harm to one in
public life/'

Eve liked the emphasis that Paul laid on " his coun
try," and she thought the whole remark was made in
a spirit that an Englishman would not be apt to be
tray.

" Has it ever occurred to yon," continued John Ef
fingham, " that our sudden and unexpected separation,
has caused a grave neglect of duty in me, if not in both
of us?"

156 HOME AS FOU:NTD.

Paul looked surprised, and, by his manner, he de
manded an explanation.

" You may remember the sealed package of poor
Mr. Monday, that we were to open together on our
arrival in New-York, and on the contents of which, \ve
were taught to believe depended the settling of some
important private rights. I gave that package to you,
at the moment it was received, and, in the hurry of
leaving us, you overlooked the circumstance."

" All very true, and to my shame I confess that, un
til this instant, the affair has been quite forgotten by
me. I had so much to occupy my mind while in Eng
land, that it wras not likely to be remembered, and then
the packet itself has scarce been in my possession
since the day I left you."

" It is not lost, I trust !" said John Effingham quickly.

" Surely not — it is safe, beyond a question, in the
writing-desk in which I deposited it. But the moment
we got to Portsmouth, Ducie and myself proceeded to
London together, and, as soon as he had got through
at the Adrm'ralty, we \vent into Yorkshire, where wre
remained, much occupied with private matters of great
importance to us both, \vhile his ship was docked ; and
then it became necessary to make sundry visits to our
relations "

" Relations !" repeated Eve involuntarily, though she
did not cease to reproach herself for the indiscretion,
during the rest of the walk.

" Relations — " returned Paul, smiling. "Captain Du
cie. and myself are cousins-german, and we made pil
grimages together, to sundry family shrines. This
duty occupied us until a few days before we sailed for
Quebec. On reaching our haven, I left the ship to
visit the great lakes and Niagara, leaving most of my
effects with Ducie, who has promised to bring them on
with himself, when he followed on my track, as he ex
pected soon to do, on his way to the West Indies,
where he is to find a frigate. He owed me this atten-

HOME AS FOUWD. 157

•ion, as he insisted, on account of having induced me
to go so fa.r out of my way, with so much luggage, to
oblige him. The packet is, unluckily, left behind wito
the other things."

''And do you expect Captain Ducie to arrive in
this country soon? — The affair of the packet ought
not to be neglected much longer, for a promise to a
dying man is doubly binding, as it appeals to all our
generosity. Rather than neglect the matter much
longer, I would prefer sending a special messenger to
Quebec."

" That will be quite unnecessary, as, indeed, it would
be useless. Ducie left Quebec yesterday, and has sent
his and my effects direct to New-York, under the care
of his own steward. The writing-case, containing
other papers that are of interest to us both, he has
promised not to lose sight of, but it will accompany
him on the same tour, as that I have just made ; for,
he wishes to avail himself of this opportunity to see
Niagara and the lakes, also : he is now on my track,
and will notify me by letter of the day he will be in
Utica, in order that we may meet on the line of the
canal, near this place, and proceed to New-York, in
company."

His companions listened to this brief statement with
an intense interest, with which the packet of poor
Mr. Monday, however, had very little connection.
John Effingham called to his cousin, and, in a few
words, stated the circumstances as they had just been
Delated to himself, without adverting to the papers of
Mr. Monday, which was an affair that he had hitherto
kept to himself.

" It will be no more than a return of civility, if we
invite Captain Ducie to diverge from his road, and
pass a few days with us, in the mountains," he added.
u At what precise time do you expect him to pass,

" Within the fortnight. I feel certain he would be
VOL. I. - 14

158 HOME AS FOUND.

glad to pay his respects to this party, for he often
expressed his sincere regrets at having been employed
on a service that exposed the ladies to so much peril
and delay."

" Captain Ducie is a near kinsman of Mr. Powis,
dear father," added Eve, in a way to show her parent,
that the invitation would be agreeable to herself, for
Mr. Effingham was so attentive to the wishes of his
daughter, as never to ask a guest to his house, that he
thought would prove disagreeable to its mistress.

" I shall do myself the pleasure to write to Captain
Ducie, this evening, urging him to honour us with his
company," returned Mr. Effingharn. " We expect
other friends in a few days, and I hope he will not find
his time heavy on his hands, while in exile among us.
Mr. Powis will enclose my note in one of his letters,
and will, I trust, second the request by his own solici
tations."

Paul made his acknowledgments, and the whole
party proceeded, though the interruption caused such
a change in the figure of the promenade, as to leave the
young man the immediate escort of Eve. The party,
by this time, had not only reached the highway, but it
had again diverged from it, to follow the line of an
old and abandoned wheel-track, that descended the
mountain, along the side of the declivity, by a wilder
and more perilous direction than suited a modern en
terprise ; it having been one of those little calculated
and rude roads, that the first settlers of a country are
apt to make, before there are time and means to inves
tigate and finish to advantage. Although much more
difficult and dangerous than its successor, as a highway,
this relic of the infant condition of the country was
by far the most retired and beautiful ; and pedestrians
continued to use it, as a common foot-path to the
Vision. The seasons had narrowed its surface, and
the second growth had nearly covered it with their
branches, shading it like an arbour : and Eve expressed

HOME AS FOUND. 159

ner delight with its wildness and boldness, mingled, as
both were, with so pleasant a seclusion, as they de
scended along a path as safe and convenient as a
French allce. Glimpses were constantly obtained of
the lake and the village, while they proceeded ; and
altogether, they who \vere strangers to the scenery,
were loud in its praises.

" Most persons, who see this valley for the first time,"
observed Aristabulus, " find something to say in its fa
vour : for my part, I consider it as rather curious mv-
self."

" Curious !" exclaimed Paul ; " that gentleman is, at
least, singular in the choice of his expressions."

" You have met him before to-day," said Eve, laugh
ing, for Eve was now in a humour to laugh at trifles.
" This we know, since he had prepared us to meet a
poet, where wre only find an old friend."

" Only, Miss Effingham ! — Do you estimate poets so
high, and old friends so low ?"

" This extraordinary person, Mr. Aristabulus Bragg,
really deranges all one's notions and opinions in such
a manner, as to destroy even the usual signification of
words, I believe. He seems so much in, and yet so
much out of his place ; is both so rus£ and so unprac
tised ; so unfit for what he is, and so ready at every
thing, that I scarcely know how to apply terms in any
matter with which he has the smallest connection. I
fear he has persecuted you since your arrival in Tern
pleton ?"

" Not at all ; I am so much acquainted writh men of
his cast, that I have acquired a tact in managing them,
Perceiving that he was disposed to suspect me of a
disposition to 'poetize the lake,' to use his own term,
I took care to drop a couple of lines, roughly written
off, like a hasty and imperfect effusion, where I felt
sure he would find them, and have been living for a
whole week on the fame thereof."

" You do indulge in such tastes, then ?" said Eve,
smiling a little saucily.

100 HOME AS FOUND.

" I am as innocent of such an ambition, as of wish
in£ to marry the heiress of the British throne, which. ,
I believe, just now, is the goal of all the Icaruses of our
own time. I am merely a rank plagiarist — for the
rhyme, on the fame of which I have rioted for a glor
ous week, was two lines of Pope's, an author so effec
tually forgotten in these palmy days of literature, in
which all knowledge seems so condensed into the pro
ductions of the last few years, that a man might al
most pass off an entire classic for his own, without the
fear of detection. It was merely the first couplet of
the Essay on Man, which, fortunately, having an allu
sion to the ' pride of Kings,' would pass for original,
as well as excellent, in nineteen villages in twenty in
America, in these piping times of ultra-republicanism.
No doubt Mr. Bragg thought a eulogy on the ' people'
was to come next, to be succeeded by a glorious pic
ture of Templeton and its environs."

" I do not know that I ought to admit these hits at
liberty from a foreigner," said Eve, pretending to look
graver than she felt ; for never before, in her life, had
our heroine so strong a consciousness of happiness, as
she had experienced that very morning.

" Foreigner, Miss Effingham ! — And why a fo
reigner ?"

" Nay, you know your own pretended cosmopolitism;
and ought not the cousin of Captain Ducie to be an
Englishman ?"

" I shall not answer for the ought, the simple fact
being a sufficient reply to the question. The cousin
of Captain Ducie is not an Englishman ; nor, as I see
you suspect, has he ever served a day in the British
navy, or in any other navy than that of his native land."

" This is indeed taking us by surprise, and that most
agreeably," returned Eve, looking up at him with un
disguised pleasure, while a bright glow crimsoned her
face. " We could not but feel an interest in one who

HOME AS FOUND. 1G1

aad so effectually served us ; and both my father and
Mr. John Effingham "

" Cousin Jack — " interrupted the smiling Paul,

" Cousin Jack, then, if you dislike the formality I
used; both my father and cousin Jack examined the
American navy registers for your name, without suc
cess, as I understood, and the inference that followed
was fair enough, I believe you will admit."

" Had they looked at a register of a few years' date,
they would have met with better luck. I have quitted
the service, and am a sailor only in recollections. For
the last few years, like yourselves, I have been a tra
veller by land as well as by water."

Eve said no more, though every syllable that the
young man uttered was received by attentive ears,
and retained with a scrupulous fidelity of memory.
They walked some distance in silence, until they
reached the grounds of a house that was beautifully
placed on the side of the mountain, near a lovely wood
of pines. Crossing these grounds, until they reached
a terrace in front of the dwelling, the village of Tem-
pleton lay directly in their front, perhaps a hundred
feet beneath them, and yet so near, as to render the
minutest object distinct. Here they all stopped to take
a more distinct view of a place that had so much inter
est with most of the party.

"I hope you are sufficiently acquainted with the
localities to act as cicerone," said Mr. Effingham to
Paul. " In a visit of a week to this village, you have
scarcely overlooked the Wigwam."

" Perhaps I ought to hesitate, or rather ought to
blush to own it," answered the young man, discharging
the latter obligation by colouring to his temples ; " but
curiosity has proved so much stronger than manners,
that I have been induced to trespass so far on the po
liteness of this gentleman, as to gain an admission to
your dwelling, in and about which more of my time
14*

162 HOME AS FOUND.

has been passed than has probably proved agreeable
to its inmates,"

" I hope the gentleman will not speak of it," said
Aristabulus. " In this country, we live pretty much in
common, and with me it is a rule, when a gentleman
drops in, whether stranger or neighbour, to show him
the civility to ask him to take off his hat."

" It appears to me," said Eve, willing to change the
conversation, " that Templeton has an unusual number
of steeples ; for what purpose can so small a place
possibly require so many buildings of that nature '?"

" All in behalf of orthodoxy, Miss Eve," re-turned
Aristabulus, who conceived himself to be the proper
person to answer such interrogatories. " There is a
shade of opinion beneath every one of those steeples."

" Do you mean, sir, that there are as many shades
of faith in Templeton, as I now see buildings that have
the appearance of being devoted to religious pur
poses ?"

'* Double the number, Miss, and some to spare, in
the bargain; for you see but five meeting-houses,
and the county-buildings, and we reckon seven regu
lar hostile denominations in the village, besides the
diversities of sentiment on trifles. This edifice that
you perceive here, in a line with the chimneys of the
first house, is New St. Paul's, Mr. Grant's old church,
as orthodox a house, in its way, as there is in the dio
cese, as you may see by the windows. This is a gain
ing concern, though there has been some falling off of
late, in consequence of the clergyman's having caught
a bad cold, which has made him a little hoarse; but I
dare say he will get over it, and the church ought not
to be abandoned on that account, serious as the matter
undoubtedly is, for the moment. A few of us are deter
mined to back up New St. Paul's in this crisis, and I
make it a point to go there myself, quite half the time."

" I am glad we have so much of your company,"
said Mr. Effingham, " for that is our own church, and

HOME AS FOUND. 163

in it my daughter was baptized. But, do you divide
your religious opinions in halves, Mr. Bragg if"

" In as many parts, Mr. Effingham, as there are de
nominations in the neighbourhood, giving a decided
preference to New St. Paul's, notwithstanding, under
the peculiar circumstances, particularly to the windows.
The dark, gloomy-looking building, Miss, off in the
distance, yonder, is the Methodist affair, of which not
much need be said ; Methodism flourishing but little
among us since the introduction of the New Lights;
who have fairly managed to out-excite them, on every
plan they can invent. I believe, however, they stick
pretty much to the old doctrine, which, no doubt, is
one great reason of their present apathetic state ; for
the people do love novelties."

" Pray, sir, what building is this nearly in a line
with New St. Paul's, and which resembles it a little, in
colour and form ?"

" Windows excepted ; it has two rows of regular
square-topped windows, Miss, as you may observe.
That is the First Presbyterian, or the old standard ; a
very good house, and a pretty good faith, too, as times
go. I make it a point to attend there, at least once
every fortnight ; for change is agreeable to the nature
of man. I will say, Miss, that my preference, so far
as I have any, however, is for New St. Paul's, and I
have experienced considerable regrets, that these Pres
byterians have gained a material advantage over us,
in a very essential point, lately."

" I am sorry to hear this, Mr. Bragg ; for, being an
Episcopalian myself, and having great reliance on the
antiquity and purity of my church, I should be sorry
to find it put in the wrong by any other."

" I fear we must give that point up, notwithstanding,
for these Presbyterians have entirely outwitted the
church people in that matter,"

" And what is the point in which we have been so
signally worsted?"

164 HOME AS TOUND.

" Why, Miss, their new bell weighs quite a hundred
more than that of New St. Paul's, and has altogether
the best sound. I know very well that this advantage
will not avail them any thing to boast of, in the last
great account; but it makes a surprising difference in
the state of probation. You see the yellowish looking
building across the valley, with a heavy wall around
it, and a belfry ? That, in its regular character, is the
county court-house, and gaol ; but, in the way of re
ligion, it is used pretty much miscellaneously."

" Do you mean, really, sir, that divine service is
ever actually performed in it, or that persons of all
denominations are occasionally tried there 1"

" It would be truer to say that all denominations
occasionally try the court-house," said Aristabulus,
simpering; " for I believe it has been used in this way
by every shade of religion short of the Jews. The
Gothic tower in wood, is the building of the Univer-
salists ; and the Grecian edifice, that is not yet painted,
the Baptists. The Quakers, I believe, worship chiefly
at home, and the different shades of the Presbyterians
meet, in different rooms, in private houses, about the
place."

" Are there then shades of difference in the denomi
nations, as well as all these denominations?" asked
Eve, in unfeigned surprise; " and this, too, in a popu
lation so small?"

" This is a free county, Miss Eve, and freedom loves
\Tariety. ' Many men, many minds.' "

"Quite true, sir," said Paul; "but here are many
minds among few men. Nor is this all ; agreeably to
your own account, some of these men do not exactly
know their own minds. But, can you explain to us
what essential points are involved in all these shades
of opinion?"

" It would require a life, sir, to understand the half
of them. Some say that excitement is religion, and
others, that it is contentment. One set cries up prac-

HOME AS FOUND. 165

tice, and another cries out against it. This man main
tains that he will be saved if he does good, and that
man affirms that if he only does good, he will be
damned; a little evil is necessary to salvation, with
one shade of opinion, while another thinks a man is
never so near conversion as when he is deepest in sin."

" Subdivision is the order of the day?" added John
Effingham ; " every county is to be subdivided that
there may be more county towns, and county offices;
every religion decimated, that there may be a greater
variety and a better quality of saints."

Aristabulus nodded his head, and he would have
winked, could he have presumed to take such a liberty
with a man he held as much in habitual awe, as John
Effingham.

" Monsieur" inquired Mademoiselle Viefville, " is
there no tglise, no veritable eglise, in Templeton ?"

"Oh, yes, Madame, several," returned Aristabulus,
who would as soon think of admitting that he did not
understand the meaning of veritable eglise, as one of
the sects he had been describing would think of ad
mitting that it was not infallible in its interpretation of
Christianity — "several ; but they are not be seen from
this particular spot."

" How much more picturesque would it be, and
even christian-like in appearance, at least," said Paul,
" could these good people consent to unite in worship
ping God ! — and how much does it bring into strong
relief, the feebleness and ignorance of man, when you
see him splitting hairs about doctrines, under which he
has been told, in terms as plain as language can make
it, that he is simply required to believe in the good
ness and power of a Being whose nature and agencies
exceed his comprehension."

" All very true," cried John Effingham, " but what
would become of liberty of conscience in such a case I
Most men, now-a-days, understand by faith, a firm re
liance on their own opinions !"

166 HOME AS FOUND.

" In that case, too," put in Aristabulus, " we should
want this handsome display of churches to adorn our
village. There is good comes of it; for any man
would be more likely to invest in a place that has five
churches, than in a place with but one. As it is, Tem-
pleton has as beautiful a set of churches as any village
I know."

" Say, rather, sir, a set of castors ; for a stronger
resemblance to vinegar-cruets and mustard-pots, than
is borne by these architectural prodigies, eye never
beheld."

" It is, nevertheless, a beautiful thing, to see the high
pointed roof of the house of God, crowning an assem
blage of houses, as one finds it in other countries,"
said Eve, " instead of a pile of tavern, as is too much
the case in this dear home of ours."

When this remark was uttered, they descended the
step that led from the terrace, and proceeded towards
the village. On reaching the gate of the Wigwam,
the whole party stood confronted with that offspring
of John Effingham's taste ; for so great had been his
improvements on the original production of Hiram
Doolittle, that externally, at least, that distinguished
architect could no longer have recognized the fruits of
his own talents.

" This is carrying out to the full, John, the conceits
of the composite order," observed Mr. Effingham,
drily.

" I shall be sorry, Ned, if you dislike your house, as
it is amended and corrected."

" Dear cousin Jack," cried Eve, " it is an odd jumble
of the Grecian and Gothic. One would like to know
your authorities for such a liberty."

"What do you think of the facade of the cathedral
of Milan, Miss," laying emphasis on the last words, in
imitation of the manner of Mr. Bragg. " Is it such a
novelty to see the two styles blended; or is architec-

HOME AS FOUND. 167

ture so pure in America, that you think I have com
mitted the unpardonable sin."

" Nay, nothing that is out of rule ought to strike
one, in a country where imitation governs in all things
immaterial, and originality unsettles all things sacred
and dear."

" By way of punishment for that bold speech, I wish
I had left the old rookery in the state I found it, that
its beauties might have greeted your eyes, instead of
this uncouth pile, which seems so much to offend them.
Mademoiselle Viefville, permit me to ask how you like
that house ?"

" Mais, c'est un petit chateau.''1

" Un chateau, Effinghamise,"<sa\d Eve, laughing.

" Ejfinghami$e si vous voulez, ma chere ; pourtant
c'est un chateau"

" The general opinion in this part of the country
is," said Aristabulus, " that Mr. John Effingham has
altered the building on the plan of some edifice of Eu
rope, though I forget the name of the particular tem
ple ; it is not, however, the Parthenon, nor the temple
of Minerva."

" I hope, at least," said Mr. Effingham, leading the
way up a little lawn, " it will not turn out to be the
Temple of the Winds."

CHAPTER XL

" Nay, I '11 come ; if I lose a scruple of this sport, let me be boiled to
death with melancholy." — SHAKSPEARE.

THE progress of society in America, has been dis
tinguished by several peculiarities that do not so pro
perly belong to the more regular and methodical ad
vances of civilization in other parts of the world. On
the one hand, the arts of life, like Minerva, who wras

168 HOME AS FOUND.

struck out of the intellectual being of her father at a
blow, have started full-grown into existence, as the
legitimate inheritance of the colonists, while, on the
other, every thing tends towards settling down into a
medium, as regards quality, a consequence of the com
munity-character of the institutions. Every thing
she had seen that day, had struck Eve as partaking of
this mixed nature, in which, while nothing was vulgar,
little even approached to that high standard, that her
European education had taught her to esteem perfect.
In the Wigwam, however, as her father's cousin had
seen fit to name the family dwelling, there was more
of keeping, and a closer attention to the many little
things she had been accustomed to consider essential
to comfort and elegance, and she was better satisfied
with her future home, than with most she had seen
since her return to America.

As we have described the interior of this house, in
another work, little remains to be said on the sub
ject, at present ; for, while John Effingham had com
pletely altered its external appearance, its internal
was not much changed. It is true, the cloud-coloured
covering had disappeared, as had that stoop also, the
columns of which were so nobly upheld by their super
structure ; the former having given place to a less ob
trusive roof, that was regularly embattled, and the lat
ter having been swallowed up by a small entrance
tower, that the new architect had contrived to attach
to the building with quite as much advantage to it, in
the \vay of comfort, as in the way of appearance. In
truth, the Wigwam had none of the more familiar fea
tures of a modern American dwelling of its class.
There was not a column about it, whether Grecian,
Roman, or Egyptian ; no Venetian blinds ; no veran
dah or piazza ; no outside paint, nor gay blending of
colours. On the contrary, it was a plain old structure,
built with great solidity, and of excellent materials, and
in that style of respectable dignity and propriety, tha*

HOME AS FOUND. 169

was perhaps a little more peculiar to our fathers than
it is peculiar to their successors, our worthy selves.
In addition to the entrance tower, or porch, on its
northern front, John Effingham had also placed a pret
tily devised conceit on the southern, by means of
which the abrupt transition from an inner room to the
open air was adroitly avoided. He had, moreover,
removed the "firstly" of the edifice, and supplied its
place with a more suitable addition that contained some
of the offices, while it did not disfigure the building, a
rare circumstance in an architectural after-thought.

Internally, the Wigwam had gradually been under
going improvements, ever since that period, which, in
the way of the arts, if not in the way of chronology,
might be termed the dark ages of Otsego. The great
hall had long before lost its characteristic decoration
of the severed arm of Wolf, a Gothic paper that was
better adapted to the really respectable architecture
of the room being its substitute ; and even the urn that
was thought to contain the ashes of Queen Dido, like
the pitcher that goes often to the well, had been broken
in a war of extermination that had been carried on
against the cobwebs by a particularly notable house
keeper. Old Homer, too, had gone the way of all
baked clay; Shakspeare, himself, had dissolved into
dust, " leaving not a wreck behind ;" and of Washing
ton and Franklin, even, indigenous as they were, there
remained no vestiges. Instead of these venerable me
morials of the past, John Effingham, who retained a
pleasing recollection of their beauties as they had pre
sented themselves to his boyish eyes, had bought a few
substitutes in a New-York shop, and a Shakspeare,
and a Milton, and a Ccesar, and a Dryden, and a
Locke, as the writers of heroic so beautifully express
it, were now seated in tranquil dignity on the old me
dallions that had held their illustrious predecessors.
Although time had, as yet, done little for this new col-

VOL. I. 15

170 HOME A3 FOUND.

lection in the way of colour, dust and neglect were
already throwing around them the tint of antiquity.

" The lady," to use the language of Mr. Bragg, who
did the cooking of the Wigwam, having every thing
in readiness, our party took their seats at the breakfast
table, which was spread in the great hall, as soon as
each had paid a little attention to the toilette. As the
service was neither very scientific, nor sufficiently pe
culiar, either in the way of elegance or of its opposite
quality, to be worthy of notice, we shall pass it over
in silence.

" One will not quite so much miss European archi
tecture in this house," said Eve, as she took her seat
at table, glancing an eye at the spacious and lofty
room, in which they were assembled ; " here is at least
size and its comforts, if not elegance."

" Had you lost all recollection of this building, my
child?" inquired her father, kindly; "I was in hopes
you would feel some of the happiness of returning
home, when you again found yourself beneath its
roof!"

" I should greatly dislike to have all the antics I
have been playing in my o\vn dressing-room exposed,"
returned Eve, rewarding the parental solicitude of her
father by a look of love, " though Grace, between her
laughing and her tears, has threatened me with such
a disgrace. Ann Sidley has also been weeping, and,
as even Annette, always courteous and considerate,
has shed a few tears in the way of sympathy, you
ought not to imagine that I have been altogether so
stoical as not to betray some feeling, dear father. But
the paroxysm is past, and I am beginning to philoso
phize. I hope, cousin Jack, you have not forgotten
that the drawing-room is a lady's empire !"

"I have respected your rights, Miss Effingharn,
though, with a wish to prevent any violence to your
tastes, I have caused sundry antediluvian paintings and
engravings to be consigned to the "

HOME AS FOUND. 171

" Garret ?" inquired Eve, so quickly as to interrupt
the speaker.

" Fire," coolly returned her cousin. " The garret
is now much too good for them ; that part of the house
being converted into sleeping-rooms for the maids.
Mademoiselle Annette would go into hysterics, were
she to see the works of art, that satisfied the past
generation of masters in this country, in too close fami
liarity with her Louvre-ized eyes."

" Point du tout, monsieur" said Mademoiselle Vief-
\7ille, innocently ; " Jlmiette a du gout dans son metier
sans doute, but she is too well bred to expect impossi-
bilitC'S. No doubt she would have conducted herself
with decorum."

Every body laughed, for much light-heartedness pre
vailed at that board, and the conversation continued.

" I shall be satisfied if Annette escape convulsions,"
Eve added, " a refined taste being her weakness ; and,
to be frank, what I recollect of the works you men
tion, is not of the most flattering nature."

" And yet," observed Sir George, " nothing has sur
prised me more than the respectable state of the arts
of engraving and painting in this country. It was un-
looked for, and the pleasure has probably been in pro
portion to the surprise."

" In that you are very right, Sir George Temple-
more," John Effingham answered; " but the improve
ment is of very recent date. He who remembers an
American town half a century ago, will see a very
different thing in an American town of to-day ; and
this is equally true of the arts you mention, with the
essential difference that the latter are taking a right
direction under a proper instruction, while the former
are taking a wrrong direction, under the influence of
money, that has no instruction. Had I left much of
the old furniture, or any of the old pictures in the Wig
wam, we should have had the bland features of Miss

172 HOME AS FOUND.

Effingham in frowns, instead of bewitching smiles, at
this very moment."

" And yet I have seen fine old furniture in this coun
try, cousin Jack."

" Very true ; though not in this part of it. The
-Deans of conveyance were wanting half a century
since, and few people risk finery of any sort on cor
duroys. This very house had some respectable old
things, that were brought here by dint of money, and
they still remain ; but the eighteenth century in general,
may be set down as a very dark antiquity in all this
region."

When the repast was over, Mr. Effingham led his
guests and daughter through the principal apartments,
sometimes commending, and sometimes laughing, at
the conceits of his kinsman. The library was a good
sized room ; good sized at least for a country in \vhich
domestic architecture, as w?ell as public architecture,
is still in the chrysalis state. Its walls were hung with
an exceedingly pretty gothic paper, in green, but over
each window was a chasm in the upper border; and
as this border supplied the arches, the unity of the en
tire design was broken in no less than four places, that
being the precise number of the windows. The defect
soon attracted the eye of Eve, and she was not slow
in demanding an explanation.

" The deficiency is owing to an American accident,'1
returned her cousin ; " one of those calamities of which
you are fated to experience many, as the mistress of
an American household. No more of the border was
to be bought in the country, and this is a land of shops
and not of fabricants. At Paris, Mademoiselle, one
would send to the paper-maker for a supply ; but, alas !
he that has not enough of a thing with us, is as badly
off as if he had none. We are consumers, and not
producers of works of art. It is a long way to send
to France fcr ten or fifteen feet of paper hangings.,

HOME AS FOUND. 173

and yet this must be done, or my beautiful gothic
arches will remain forever without their key-stones !"

" One sees the inconvenience of this," observed Sir
George — "we feel it, even in England, in all that
relates to imported things."

" And we, in nearly all things, but food."

" And does not this show that America can never
become a manufacturing country'?" asked the baronet,
with the interest an intelligent 'Englishman ever feels
in that all-absorbing question. " If you cannot manu
facture an article as simple as that of paper-hangings,
would it not be well to turn your attention, altogether,
to agriculture?"

As the feeling of this interrogatory was much more
apparent than its logic, smiles passed from one to the
other, though John Effingham, who really had a regard
for Sir George, was content to make an evasive reply,
a singular proof of amity, in a man of his caustic
temperament.

The survey of the house, on the whole, proved satis
factory to its future mistress, who complained, how
ever, that it was furnished too much like a town resi-
sidence.

" For," she added, " you will remember, cousin
Jack, that our visits here will be something like a vil-
kggiatura"

"Yes, yes, my fair lady; it will not be long before
your Parisian and Roman tastes will be ready to pro
nounce the whole country a villcggiatura /"

" This is the penalty, Eve, one pays for being a
Hajji," observed Grace, who had been closely watch
ing the expression of the others' countenances ; for,
agreeably to her view of things, the Wigwam wanted
nothing to render it a perfect abode. "The things
that ire enjoy, you despise."

" That is an argument, my dear coz, that would
apply equally well, as a reason for preferring brown
sugar to white."

15*

174 HOME AS FOUND.

" In coffee, certainly, Miss Eve," put in the atten
tive Aristabulus, who having acquired this taste, in
virtue of an economical mother, really fancied it a
pure one. "Every body, in these regions, prefers the
brown in coffee."

" Oh, mon pere et ma mere, comme je vous en veux"
said Eve, without attending to the nice distinctions of
Mr. Bragg, which savoured a little too much of the
neophyte in cookery, to find favour in the present
company, " comme je vous en veux for having neglected
so many beautiful sites, to place this building in the
very spot it occupies."

" In that respect, my child, \ve may rather be grate
ful at finding so comfortable a house, at all. Compared
with the civilization that then surrounded it, this dwell
ing was a palace at the time of its erection ; bearing
some such relation to the humbler structures around it,
as the chateau bears to the cottage. Remember .that
brick had never before been piled on brick, in the
walls of a house, in all this region, when the Wigwam
was constructed. It is the Temple of Neptune of Ot-
sego, if not of all the surrounding counties."

Eve pressed to her lips the hand she \vas holding in
both her own, and they all passed out of the library
into another room. As they came in front of the hall
windows, a party of apprentice-boys \vere seen coolly
making their arrangements to amuse themselves with
a game of ball, on the lawn directly in front of the
house.

" Surely, Mr. Bragg," said the owner of the Wig
wam, with more displeasure in his voice than was
usual for one of his regulated mind, "you do not coun
tenance this liberty?"

" Liberty, sir ! — I am an advocate for liberty
wherever I can find it. Do you refer to the young
men on the lawn, Mr. Effingham ?"

" Certainly to them, sir ; and permit me to say, I
think they might have chosen a more suitable spot for

HOME AS FOUND. 175

(heir sports. They are mistaking liberties for liberty,
I fear."

" Why, sir, I believe they have always played ball
in that precise locality."

" Always ! — I can assure you this is a great mistake.
What private family, placed as we are in the centre
of a village, would allow of an invasion of its privacy
in this rude manner ? Well may the house be termed
a Wigwam, if this whooping is to be tolerated before
its door."

"You forget, Ned," said John Effingham, with a
sneer, " that an American always means just eighteen
months. Antiquity is reached in five lustres, and the
dark ages at the end of a human life. I dare say these
amiable young gentlemen, who enliven their sports with
so many agreeable oaths, would think you very unrea
sonable and encroaching to presume to tell them they
are unwelcome."

" To own the truth, Mr. John, it would be downright
unpopular."

" As I cannot permit the ears of the ladies to be
offended with these rude brawls, and shall never con
sent to have grounds that are so limited, and which so
properly belong to the very privacy of my dwelling,
invaded in this coarse manner, I beg, Mr. Bragg, that
you will, at once, desire these young men to pursue
their sports somewhere else."

Aristabulus received this commission with a very ill
grace ; for, while his native sagacity told him that Mr.
Effingham was right, he too well knew the loose habits
that had been rapidly increasing in the country during
the last ten years, not to foresee that the order would
do violence to all the apprentices' preconceived no
tions of their immunities ; for, as he had truly stated,
things move at so quick a pace in America, and popu
lar feeling is so arbitrary, that a custom of a twelve
months' existence is deemed sacred, until the public,
itself, sees fit to alter it. He was reluctantly quitting

176 HOME AS FOUND.

the party, on his unpleasant duty, when Mr. Effingham
turned to a servant, who belonged to the place, and
bade him go to the village barber, and desire him to
come to the Wigwam to cut his hair ; Pierre, who
usually performed that office for him, being busied
in unpacking trunks.

" Never mind, Tom," said Aristabulus obligingly, as
he took up his hat ; " I am going into the street, and
will give the message to Mr. Lather."

" I cannot think, sir, of employing you on such a
duty," hastily interposed Mr. Effingham, who felt a
gentleman's reluctance to impose an unsuitable office
on any of his dependants — " Tom, I am sure, will do
me the favour."

" Do not name it, my dear sir ; nothing makes me
happier than to do these little errands, and, another
time, you can do as much for me."

Aristabulus now went his way more cheerfully, for
he determined to go first to the barber, hoping that
some expedient might suggest itself, by means of which
he could coax the apprentices from the lawn, and
thus escape the injury to his popularity, that he so
much dreaded. It is true, these apprentices were not
voters, but then some of them speedily would be, and
all of them, moreover, had tongues, an instrument Mr.
Bragg held in quite as much awe as some men dread
salt-petre. In passing the ball-players, he called out
in a wheedling tone to their ringleader, a notorious
street brawler —

"A fine time for sport, Dickey; don't you think
there would be more room in the broad street than on
this crowded lawn, where you lose your ball so often
in the shrubbery?"

" This place will do, on a pinch," bawled Dickey —
"though it might be better. If it warn't for that
plagued house, we couldn't ask for a better ball-ground."

"I tlon't see," put in another, "what folks built a

HOME AS FOUND. 177

house just in that spot for ; it has spoilt the very best
play-ground in the village."

" Some people have their notions as well as others,"
returned Aristabulus ; " but, gentlemen, if I were in
your place, I would try the street ; I feel satisfied you
would find it much the most agreeable and convenient."

The apprentices thought differently, however, or they
were indisposed to the change ; and so they recom
menced their yells, their oaths, and their game. In
the mean while, the party in the house continued their
examination of John Effingham's improvements ; and
when this was completed, they separated, each to his
or her own room.

Aristabulus soon reappeared on the lawn ; and, ap
proaching the ball-players, he began to execute his
commission, as he conceived, in good earnest. Instead
of simply saying, however, that it was disagreeable to
the owner of the property to have such an invasion on
his privacy, and thus putting a stop to the intrusion for
the future as well as at the present moment, he believed
some address necessary to attain the desired end.

" Well, Dickey," he said, " there is no accounting
for tastes ; but, in my opinion, the street would be a
much better place to play ball in than this lawn. I
wonder gentlemen of your observation should be satis
fied with so cramped a play-ground !"

" I tell you, Squire Bragg, this will do," roared
Dickey ; " we are in a hurry, and no way particular ;
the bosses will be after us in half an hour. Heave
away, Sam."

*' There are so many fences hereabouts," continued
Aristabulus, with an air of indifference; "it's true
the village trustees say there shall be no ball-playing
in the street, but I conclude you don't much mind what
they think or threaten."

" Let them sue for that, if they like," bawled a par
ticularly amiable blackguard, called Peter, who struck
his ball as he spoke, quite into the principal street of

178 HOME AS FOUND.

iho village. "Who's a trustee, that he should tel,
goiitiv3:Tioa where they are to play ball!"

•• Sure enough," said Aristabulus, " and, now, by
following up that, blow, you can bring matters to an
issue. I think the law very oppressive, and you can
never have so good an opportunity to bring things to a
crisis. Besides, it is very aristocratic to play bail
among roses and dahlias."

The bait took ; for what apprentice — American ap
prentice, in particular — can resist an opportunity of
showing how much he considers himself superior to
the law ? Then it had never struck any of the party
before, that it was vulgar and aristocratic to pursue
the sport among roses, and one or two of them
actually complained that they had pricked their fin
gers, in searching for the ball.

" I know Mr. Effingham will be very sorry to
have you go," continued Aristabulus, following up his
advantage ; " but gentlemen cannot always forego
their pleasures for other folks."

"Who's Mr. Effingham, I would like tb know?"
cried Joe Wart. " If he wants people tb play ball on
his premises, let him cut down his roses. Come, gen
tlemen, I conform to Squire Bragg, and invite you all
to follow me into the street."

As the lawn was now evacuated, en masse, Arista
bulus proceeded with alacrity to the house, and went
into the library, where Mr. Effingham was patiently
waiting his return.

" I am happy to inform you, sir," commenced the
ambassador, "that the ball-players have adjourned;
and as for Mr. Lather, he declines your proposition."

" Declines my proposition !"

" Yes, sir ; he dislikes to come ; for he thinks it will
be altogether a poor operation. His notion is, that If
it be worth his while to come up to the Wigwam to
cut your hair, it may be worth your while to go down
to the shop, to have it cut. Considering the matter in

HOME AS FOUND. 179

all its bearings, therefore, he concludes he would
rather not engage in the transaction at all,"

" I regret, sir, to have consented to your taking so
disagreeable a commission, and regret it the more, now
I find that the barber is disposed to be troublesome."

" Not at all, sir. Mr. Lather is a good man, in his
way, and particularly neighbourly. By the way, Mr.
Effingham, he asked me to propose to let him take
down your garden fence, in order that he may haul
some manure on his potato patch, which wants it dread
fully, he says."

" Certainly, sir. I cannot possibly object to his haul-
ing his manure, even through this house, should he
wish it. He is so very valuable a citizen, and one
who knows his own business so well, that I am only
surprised at the moderation of his request."

Here Mr. Effingham rose, rang the bell for Pierre,
and went to his own room, doubting, in his own mind,
from all that he had seen, whether this was really the
Templeton he had known in his youth, and whether he
\va s in his own house or not.

As for Aristabulus, who saw nothing out of rule, or
contrary to his own notions of propriety, in what had
passed, he hurried off to tell the barber, who was so
ignorant of the first duty of his trade, that he was at
liberty to pull down Mr. Effingham's fence, in order to
manure his own potato patch.

Lest the reader should suppose we are drawing ca
ricatures, instead of representing an actual condition
of society, it may be necessary to explain that Mr.
Bragg was a standing candidate for popular favour ;
that, like Mr. Dodge, he considered every thing that
presented itself in the name of the public, as sacred
and paramount, and that so general and positive w^as
his deference for majorities, that it was the bias
of his mind to think half-a-dozen always in the right,
as opposed to one, although that one, agreeably to the
great decision of the real majority of the entire com-

ISO HOME AS FOUND.

munity, had not only the law on his side, but all tha
abstract merits of the disputed question. In short, to
such a pass of freedom had Mr. Bragg, in common
with a large class of his countrymen, carried his no
tions, that he had really begun to imagine liberty was
all means and no end.

CHAPTER XII.

THE progress of society, it has just been said, in what
is termed a " new country," is a little anomalous. At
the commencement of a settlement, there is much of
that sort of kind feeling and mutual interest, which
men are apt to manifest towards each other, when they
are embarked in an enterprise of common hazards.
The distance that is unavoidably inseparable from edu
cation, habits and manners, is lessened by mutual wants
and mutual efforts ; and the gentleman, even while he
may maintain his character and station, maintains them
with that species of good-fellowship and familiarity,
that marks the intercourse between the officer and the
soldier, in an arduous campaign. Men, and even wo
men, break bread together, and otherwise commingle,
that, in different circumstances, would be strangers ;
the hardy adventures and rough living of the forest,
apparently lowering the pretensions of the man of cul
tivation and mere mental resources, to something very
near the level of those of the man of physical energy,
and manual skill. In this rude intercourse, the parties
meet, as it might be, on a sort of neutral ground, one
yielding some of his superiority, and the other laying

.

"In sooth, thou wast in very gracious fooling last night, when thou
epokest of Pigrogromotus, of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queu-
bus; 'twas very good i' faith." SIR AN&REW AGUE-CHEEK.

HOME AS FOUffD, 181

claims to an outward show of equality, that he secretly
knows, however, is the result of the peculiar cir
cumstances in which he is placed. In short, the state
of society is favourable to the claims of mere animal
force, and unfavourable to those of the higher quali
ties.

This period may be termed, perhaps, the happiest of
the first century of a settlement. The great cares of
life are so engrossing and serious, that small vexations
are overlooked, and the petty grievances that would
make us seriously uncomfortable in a more regular
state of society, are taken as matters of course, or
laughed at as the regular and expected incidents of the
day. Good-will abounds ; neighbour comes cheerfully
to the aid of neighbour; and life has much of the reck
less gaiety, careless association, and buoyant merri
ment of childhood. It is found that they who have
passed through this probation, usually look back to it
with regret, and are fond of dwelling on the rude
scenes and ridiculous events that distinguish the his
tory of a new settlement, as the hunter is known to
pine for the forest.

To this period of fun, toil, neighbourly feeling and
adventure, succeeds another, in which society begins to
marshal itself, and the ordinary passions have sway.
Now it is, that we see the struggles for place, the
heart-burnings and jealousies of contending families,
and the influence of mere money. Circumstances
have probably established the local superiority of a few
beyond all question, and the condition of these serves
as a goal for the rest to aim at. The learned profes
sions, the ministry included, or what, by courtesy, are
so called, take precedence, as a matter of course, next
to wealth, however, when wealth is at all supported by
appearances. Then commence those gradations of
social station, that set institutions at defiance, and
which as necessarily follow civilization, as tastes and
habits are a consequence of indulgence.

VOL. I. 16

182 HOME AS FOUND.

This is, perhaps, the least inviting condition of so
oiety that belongs to any country that can claim to be
free and removed from barbarism. The tastes are too
uncultivated to exercise any essential influence; and
when they do exist, it is usually with the pretension
and effort that so commonly accompany infant know
ledge. The struggle is only so much the more severe,
in consequence of the late pele mele, while men lay
claim to a consideration that would seem beyond their
reach, in an older and more regulated community. It
is during this period that manners suffer the most, since
they want the nature and feeling of the first condition,
while they are exposed to the rudest assaults of the
coarse-minded and vulgar; for, as men usually defer to
a superiority that is long established, there being a
charm about antiquity that is sometimes able to repress
the passions, in older communities the marshalling of
time quietly regulates what is here the subject of strife.

What has just been said, depends on a general and
natural principle, perhaps ; but the state of society we
are describing has some features peculiar to itself. The
civilization of America, even in its older districts,
which supply the emigrants to the newer regions, is
unequal ; one state possessing a higher level than
another. Coming as it does, from different parts of
this vast country, the population of a new settlement,
while it is singularly homogenous for the circumstances,
necessarily brings with it its local peculiarities. If to
these elements be added a sprinkling of Europeans of
various nations and conditions, the effects of the com
mingling, and the temporary social struggles that fol
Jow, will occasion no surprise.

The third and last condition of society in a " new
country," is that in which the influence of the particu
lar causes enumerated ceases, and men and things
come within the control of more general and regular
laws. The effect, of course, is to leave the commu
nity in possession of a civilization that conforms to

HOME AS FOUND. 183

that of the whole region, be it higher or be it lower,
and with the division into castes that are more or less
rigidly maintained, according to circumstances.

The periods, as the astronomers call the time taken
in a celestial revolution, 'of the two first of these
epochs in the history of a settlement, depend very much
on its advancement in wealth and in numbers. In
some places, the pastoral age, or that of good fellow
ship, continues for a whole life, to the obvio-us retro
gression of the people, in most of the higher qualities,
but to their manifest advantage, ho\vever, in the plea
sures of the time being ; while, in others, it passes
away rapidly, like the buoyant animal joys, that live
their time, between fourteen and twenty.

The second period is usually of longer duration, the
migratory habits of the American people keeping so
ciety more unsettled than might otherwise prove to
be the case. It may be said never to cease entirely,
until the great majority of the living generation are
natives of the region, knowing no other means of com
parison than those under which they have passed their
days. Even when this is the case, there is commonly
so large an infusion of the birds of passage, men who
are adventurers in quest of advancement, and who
live without the charities of a neighbourhood, as they
may be said almost to live without a home, that there
is to be found, for a long time, a middle state of socie
ty, during which it may well be questioned whether a
community belongs to the second or to the third of the
periods named.

Templeton was properly in this equivocal condition,
for while the third generation of the old settlers were
in active life, so many passers-by came and went, that
the influence of the latter nearly neutralized that of
time and the natural order of things. Its population
was pretty equally divided between the descendants
of the earlier inhabitants, and those who flitted like
swallows and other migratory birds. All of those who

184 HOME AS TOUND.

had origiha41y entered the region in the pride of man
hood, and had been active in c-on verting the wilderness
into the abodes of civilized men, if they had not been
literally gathered to their fathers, in a physical sense,
had been laid, the first of their several races, beneath
those sods that were to cover the heads of so many of
their descendants. A few still remained among those
who entered the wilderness in young manhood, but the
events of the first period we have designated, and
which we have imperfectly recorded in another work,
were already passing into tradition. Among these
original settlers some portion of the feeling that had
distinguished their earliest communion with their neigh
bours yet continued, and one of their greatest delights
was to talk of the hardships and privations of their
younger days, as the veteran loves to discourse of his
marches, battles, scars, and sieges. It would be too
much to say that these persons viewed the more ephe
meral part of the population with distrust, for their
familiarity with changes accustomed them to new
faces ; but they had a secret inclination for each other,
preferred those who could enter the most sincerely into
their own feelings, and naturally loved that communion
best, where they found the most sympathy. To this
fragment of the community belonged nearly all there
was to be found of that sort of sentiment which is con
nected with locality ; adventure, with them, supplying
the place of time ; while the natives of the spot, want
ing in the recollections that had so many charms for
their fathers, were not yet brought sufficiently within
the influence of traditionary interest, to feel that hal
lowed sentiment in its proper force. As opposed in
feeling to these relics of the olden time, were the birds
of passage so often named, a numerous and restless
class, that, of themselves, are almost sufficient to destroy
whatever there is of poetry, or of local attachment, in
any region where they resort.

In Templeton and its adjacent district, however, the

HOME AS FOUND. 185

two hostile influences might be said to be nearly equal,
the descendants of the fathers of the country beginning
to make a manly stand against the looser sentiment,
or the want of sentiment, that so singularly distin
guishes the migratory bands. The first did begin to
consider the temple in which their fathers had wor
shipped more hallowed than strange altars ; the sods
that covered their fathers' heads more sacred than the
clods that were upturned by the plough ; and the
places of their childhood and childish sports dearer
than the highway trodden by a nameless multitude.

Such, then, were the elements of the society into
which we have now ushered the reader, and wdth
which it will be our duty to make him better acquainted,
as we proceed in the regular narration of the incidents
of our tale.

The return of the Effinghams, after so long an ab
sence, naturally produced a sensation in so small a
place, and visiters began to appear in the Wigwam as
soon as propriety would allow. Many false rumours
prevailed, quite as a matter of course : and Eve, it was
reported, was on the point of being married to no less
than three of the inmates of her father's house, within
the first ten days, viz : Sir George Templemore, Mr.
Powis, and Mr. Bragg; the latter story taking its rise
in some precocious hopes that had escaped the gentle
man himself, in the "excitement" of helping to empty
a bottle of bad Breton wine, that was dignified with
the name of champagne. But these tales revived and
died so often, in a state of society in which matrimony
is so general a topic with the young of the gentler sex,
that they brought with them their own refutation.

The third day, in particular, after the arrival of our
party, was a reception day at the Wigwam ; the gen
tlemen and ladies making it a point to be at home and
disengaged, after twelve o'clock, in order to do honour
to their guests. One of the first who made his appear
ance was a Mr. Howel, a bachelor of about the same
16*

188 HOME AS FOUND.

age as Mr. Effingham, and a man of easy fortune and
quiet habits. Nature had done more towards making
Mr. Howel a gentleman, than either cultivation or as
sociation ; for he had passed his entire life, with very
immaterial exceptions, in the valley of Templeton,
where, without being what could be called a student,
or a scholar, he had dreamed away his existence in an
indolent communication with the current literature of
the day. He was fond of reading, and being indis
posed to contention, or activity of any sort, his mind
had admitted the impressions of what he perused, as
the stone receives a new form by the constant fall of
drops of water. Unfortunately for Mr. HowTel, he un
derstood no language but his mother tongue ; and, as
all his reading was necessarily confined to English
books, he had gradually, and unknown to himself, in
his moral nature at least, got to be a mere reflection of
those opinions, prejudices, and principles, if such a
word can properly be used for such a state of the mind,
that it had suited the interests or passions of England to
promulgate by means of the press. A perfect bonne foi
prevailed in all his notions; and though a very modest
man by nature, so very certain was he that his autho
rity was always right, that he was a little apt to be
dogmatical on such points as he thought his authors
appeared to think settled. Between John Effingham
and Mr. Howel, there were constant amicable skir
mishes in the way of discussion ; for, while the latter
was so dependent, limited in knowledge by unavoidable
circumstances, and disposed to an innocent credulity,
the first was original in his views, accustomed to see
and think for himself, and, moreover, a little apt to esti
mate his own advantages at their full value.

" Here comes our good neighbour, and my old school
fellow, Tom Howel." said Mr. Effingham, looking out
at a window, and perceiving the person mentioned
crossing the little lawn in front of the house, by fol
lowing a winding foot-path — " as kind-hearted a man,

HOME AS FOUND. 187

Sir George Templemore, as exists ; one who is really
American, for he has scarcely quitted the county half-
a-dozen times in his life, and one of the honestest fel
lows of my acquaintance."

" Ay," put in John Effingham, " as real an American
as any man can be, who uses English spectacles for
all he looks at, English opinions for ail he says, English
prejudices for all he condemns, and an English palate
for all he tastes. American, quotha ! The man is no
more American than the Times' newspaper, or Charing
Cross! He actually made a journey to New- York,
last war, to satisfy himself with his own eyes that a
Yankee frigate had really brought an Englishman
into port."

" His English predilections will be no fault in my
eyes," said the baronet, smiling — " and I dare say we
shall be excellent friends."

"I am sure Mr. Howel is a very agreeable man,"
added Grace — " of all in your Templeton coterie, he is
my greatest favourite."

" Oh ! I foresee a tender intimacy between Temple-
more and Howel," rejoined John Effingham ; " and
sundry wordy wars between the latter and Miss Effing
ham.''

" In this you do me injustice, cousin Jack. I remem
ber Mr. Howel well, and kindly; for he was ever
wont to indulge my childish whims, when a girl."

" The man is a second Burchell, and, I dare say,
never came to the Wigwam when you were a child,
without having his pockets stufled with cakes, or bon*

The meeting was cordial, Mr. Howel greeting the
gentlemen like a warm friend, and expressing great
delight at the personal improvements that had been
made in E^e, between the ages of eight and twenty.
John Effingham was no more backward than the others,
for he, too, liked their simple-minded, kind-hearted, but
credulous neighbour.

188 HOME AS FOUND.

"You are welcome back — you are welcome back,"
added Mr. Howel, blowing his nose, in order to con
ceal the tears that were gathering in his eyes. "I did
think of going to New-York to meet you, but the dis
tance at my time of life is very serious. Age, gentle
men, seems to be a stranger to you."

" And yet we, who are both a few months older than
yourself, Howel," returned Mr. Effingham, kindly,
"have managed to overcome the distance you have
just mentioned, in order to come and see you /"

" Ay, you are great travellers, gentlemen, very great
travellers, and are accustomed to motion. — Been quite
as far as Jerusalem, I hear !"

"Into its very gates, my good friend; and I wish,
with all my heart, we had had you in our company.
Such a journey might cure you of the home-malady."

" I am a fixture, and never expect to look upon the
ocean, now. I did, at one period of my life, fancy
such an event might happen, but I have finally aban
doned all hope on that subject. Well, Miss Eve, of all
the countries in which you have dwelt, to which do you
give the preference ?"

" I think Italy is the general favourite," Eve answer
ed, with a friendly smile ; " although there are some
agreeable things peculiar to almost every country."

" Italy ! — Well, that astonishes me a good deal ! I
never knew there was any thing particularly interest
ing about Italy ! I should have expected you to say,
England."

"England is a fine country, too, certainly; but it
wants many things that Italy enjoys."

" Well, now, what ?" said Mr. Howel, shifting his
legs from one knee to the other, in order to be more
convenient to listen, or, if necessary, to object. " What
can Italy possess, that England does not enjoy in a
still greater degree ?"

" Its recollections, for one thing, and all that interest
which time and great events throw around a region."

HOME AS FOUND. 189

" And is England wanting in recollections and great
events? Are there not the Conqueror? or, if you
will, Kin<T Alfred? and Queen Elizabeth, and Shak-
speare — think of Shakspeare, young lady — and Sir
Walter Scott, and the Gun-Powder Plot; and Crom
well, Oliver Cromwell, my dear Miss Eve ; and West
minster Abbey, and London Bridge, and George IV.,
the descendant of a line of real kings, — what, in the
name of Heaven, can Italy possess, to equal the inte
rest one feels in such things as these ?"

" They are very interesting no doubt ;" said Eve,
endeavouring not to smile — " but Italy has its relics of
former ages too ; you forget the Ccesars."

" Very good sort of persons for barbarous times, I
dare say, but what can they be to the English mo-
narchs ? I would rather look upon a bond fide English
king, than see all the Ca3sars that ever lived. I never
can think any man a real king but the king of Eng
land."

"Not King Solomon !" cried John Effingham.

" Oh ! he was a Bible king, and one never thinks
of them. Italy ! well, this I did not expect from your
father's daughter ! Your great-great-great-grandfather
must have been an Englishman born, Mr. Effingham ?"

" I have reason to think he was, sir."

" And Milton, and Dryden, and Newton, and Locke !
These are prodigious names, and worth all the Caesars
put together. And Pope, too ; what have they got in
Italy to compare to Pope ?"

" They have at least the Pope," said Eve, laughing.

" And, then, there are the Boar's Head in East-Cheap ;
and the Tower; and Queen Anne, and all the wits of
her reign ; and — and — and Titus Oates ; and Bosworth
Field ; and Smithfield, where the martyrs were burned,
and a thousand more spots and persons of intense
.nterest in Old England !"

" Quite true," said John Effingham, with an air of

190 HOME AS FOUND.

sympathy — " but, Howel, you have forgotten Peeping
Tom of Coventry, and the climate !"

" And Holyrood-House ; and York-Minster ; and St.
Paul's ;" continued the worthy Mr. Howel, too much
bent on a catalogue of excellencies, that to him were
sacred, to heed the interruption, " and, above all, Wind
sor Castle. What is there in the world to equal Wind
sor Castle as a royal residence 1"

Want of breath now gave Eve an opportunity to
reply, and she seized it with an eagerness that she was
the first to laugh at herself, afterwards.

" Caserta is no mean house, Mr. Howel ; and, in my
poor judgment, there is more real magnificence in its
great stair-case, than in all Windsor Castle united, if
you except the chapel."

" But, St. Paul's !"

" Why, vSt. Peter's may be set down, quite fairly, I
think, for its pendant at least."

"True, the Catholics do say so;" returned Mr.
Howel, with the deliberation one uses when he greatly
distrusts his own concession ; " but I have always con
sidered it one of their frauds. I don't think there can
be any thing finer than St. Paul's. Then there are the
noble ruins of England ! They, you must admit, are
unrivalled."

" The Temple of Neptune, at Po3stum, is commonly
thought an interesting ruin, Mr. Howel."

" Yes, yes, for a temple, I dare say ; though I do not
remember to have ever heard of it before. But no
temple can ever compare to a ruined abbey /"

" Taste isx-afi^arbitrary thing, Tom Howel, as you
and I know when as boys we quarrelled about the beauty
of our ponies," said Mr. Effingham, willing to put an
end to a discussion that he thought a little premature,
after so long an absence. " Here are two young
friends who shared the hazards of our late passage
with us, and to whom, in a great degree, we owe our
present happy security, and I am anxious to make you

HOME AS FOUND. 191

acquainted with them. This is our countryman, Mr.
Powis, and this is an English friend, who, I am cer
tain, will be happy to know so warm an admirer of his
o-wn country — Sir George Templemore."

Mr. Howel had never before seen a titled English
man, and he was taken so much by surprise that he
made his salutations rather awkwardly. As both the
young men, however, met him with the respectful ease
that denotes familiarity with the world, he soon reco
vered his self-possession.

" I hope you have brought back with you a sound
American heart, Miss Eve," resumed the guest, as soon
as this little interruption had ceased. "We have had
sundry rumours of French Marquisses, and German
Barons ; but I have, all along, trusted too much to your
patriotism to believe you would marry a foreigner."

" I hope you except Englishmen," cried Sir George,
gaily : " we are almost the same people."

" I am proud to hear you say so, sir. Nothing flat
ters me more than to be thought English ; and I cer
tainly should not have accused Miss Effingham of a
want of love of country, had "

" She married half-a-dozen Englishmen," interrupted
John Effingham, who saw that the old theme was in
danger of being revived. " But, Howel, you have
paid me no compliments on the changes in the house.
I hope they are to your taste."

<• A little too French, Mr. John."

"French! — There is not a French feature in the
whole animal. What has put such a notion into your
head?"

" It is the common opinion, and I confess I should
like the building better were it less continental."

" Why, my old friend, it is a nondescript-original —
Effingham upon Doolittle, if you will ; and, as for mo
dels, it is rather more English than any thing else."

" Well, Mr. John, I am glad to hear this, for I do
confess to a disposition rather to like the house. I am

192 HOME AS FOUND.

dying to know, Miss Eve, if you saw all our distin
guished contemporaries when in Europe? — That to
me, would be one of the greatest delights of travel
ling!"

" To say that we saw them #//, might be too much ;
though we certainly did meet with many."

" Scott, of course."

" Sir Walter we had the pleasure of meeting, a few
times, in London."

"And Southey, and Coleridge, and Wordsworth,
and Moore, and* Bulwer, and D'Israeli, and Rogers,
and Campbell, and the grave of Byron, and Horace
Smith, and Miss Landon, and Barry Cornwall, and — "

" Cum muftis aliis" put in John Effingham, again,
by way of arresting the torrent of names. " Eve saw
many of these, and, as Tubal told Shylock, * we often
came where we did hear' of the rest. But you say
nothing, friend Tom, of Goethe, and Tieck, and Schle-
gel, and La Martine, Chateaubriant, Hugo, Delavigne,
Miekiewicz, Nota, Manzoni, Niccolini, &c. &c. &LC.

&C. (fee. &C."

Honest, well-meaning Mr. Howel, listened to the
catalogue that the other ran volubly over, in silent
wonder ; for, with the exception of one or two of these
distinguished men, he had never even heard of them ;
and, in the simplicity of his heart, unconsciously to
himself, he had got to believe that there was no great
personage still living, of whom he did not know some
thing.

" Ah, here comes young Wenham, by way of pre
serving the equilibrium," resumed John Effingham,
looking out of a window — " I rather think you must
have forgotten him, Ned, though you remember his
father, beyond question."

Mr. Effingham and his cousin went out into the hall
to receive the new guest, with whom the latter had
become acquainted while superintending the repairs of
the Wigwam.

HOME AS FOUND. 193

Mr. Wenham was the son of a successful lawyer in
the county, and, being an only child, he had also suc
ceeded to an easy independence. His age, however,
brought him rather into the generation to which Eve
belonged, than into that of the father; and, if Mr.
Howel was a reflection, or rather a continuation, of
all the provincial notions that America entertained of
England forty years ago, Mr. Wenham might almost
be said to belong to the opposite school, and to be as
ultra-American, as his neighbour was ultra-British. —
If there is la jeune France, there is also la jeune Jlmc-
rique, although the votaries of the latter march with
less hardy steps than the votaries of the first. Mr.
Wenham fancied himself a paragon of national inde
pendence, and was constantly talking of American ex
cellencies, though the ancient impressions still lingered
in his moral system, as men look askance for the ghosts
which frightened their childhood on crossing a church
yard in the dark. John Effingham knew the penchant
of the young man, and when he said that he .came
happily to preserve the equilibrium, he alluded to this
striking difference in the characters of their two friends.

The introductions and salutations over, we shall re
sume the conversation that succeeded in the drawing-
room.

"You must be much gratified, Miss Effingham,"
observed Mr. Wenham, who, like a true American,
bekig a young man himself, supposed it de rigueur to
address a young lady in preference to any other pre
sent, — " with the great progress made by our country
since you went abroad-"

Eve simply answered that her extreme youth, when
she left home, had prevented her from retaining any
precise notions on such subjects.

" I dare say it is all very true," she added, " but one,
like myself, who remembers only older countries, is, I
think, a little more apt to be struck with the deficiencies.

VOL. I. 17

194 HOME AS FOUND.

than with what may, in truth, be improvements, though
they still fall short of excellence."

Mr. Wenham looked vexed, or indignant would be
a better word, but he succeeded in preserving his cool
ness — a thing that is not always easy to one of pro
vincial habits and provincial education, when he finds
his own beau icUal lightly estimated by others.

" Miss Effingham must discover a thousand imper
fections," said Mr. Howel, " coming, as she does, di
rectly from England. That music, now," — alluding to
the sounds of a flute that were heard through the open
windows, coming from the adjacent village — " must be
rude enough to her ear, after the music of London."

" The street music of London is certainly among
the best, if not the very best, in Europe," returned Eve,
with a glance of the eye at the baronet, that caused
him to smile, " and I think this fairly belongs to the
class, being so freely given to the neighbourhood."

" Have you read the articles signed Minerva, in the
Hebdomad, Miss Effingham," inquired Mr. Wenham
who was determined to try the young lady on a point
of sentiment, having succeeded so ill in his first attempt
to interest her — " they are generally thought to be a
great acquisition to American literature."

"Well, Wenham, you are a fortunate man," inter
posed Mr. Howel, " if you can find any literature in
America, to add to, or to substract from. Beyond al
manacs, reports of cases badly got up, and newspaper
verses, I know nothing that deserves such a name."

" We may not print on as fine paper, Mr. Howel, or
do up the books in as handsome binding as other peo
ple," said Mr. Wenham, bridling and looking grave,
"but so far as sentiments are concerned, or sound
sense, American literature need turn its back on no
literature of the day."

" By the way, Mr. Effingham, you were in Russia ;
did you happen to see the Emperor ?"

" I had that pleasure, Mr. Howel."

HOME AS FOUND. 195

" And is he really the monster we have been taught
to believe him ?"

" Monster !" exclaimed the upright Mr. Effingham,
fairly recoiling a step in surprise. " In what sense a
monster, my worthy friend '\ surely not in a physical '?"

" I do not know that. I have somehow got the no
tion he is any thing but handsome. A mean, butcher
ing, bloody-minded looking little chap, I'll engage."

" You are libelling one of the finest-looking men of
the age."

" I think I would submit it to a jury. I cannot be
lieve, after what I have read of him in the English
publications, that he is so very handsome."

" But, rny good neighbour, these English publications
must be wrong ; prejudiced perhaps, or even malig
nant."

" Oh ! I am not the man to be imposed on in that
way. Besides, what motive could an English writer
have for belying an Emperor of Russia ?"

" Sure enough, what motive !" exclaimed John Ef
fingham. — " You have your answer, Ned !"

" But you will remember, Mr. Howel," Eve inter
posed, " that we have seen the Emperor Nicholas."

"I dare say, Miss Eve, that your gentle nature was
disposed to judge him as kindly as possible ; and, then,
I think most Americans, ever since the treaty of
Ghent, have been disposed to view all Russians* too
favourably. No, no ; I am satisfied with the account
of the English ; they live much nearer to St. Peters
burg than we do, and they are more accustomed, too,
to give accounts of such matters."

" But living nearer, Tom Howel," cried Mr. Effing-
ham, with unusual animation, "in such a case, is of no
avail, unless one lives near enough to see with his own
eyes."

" Well — well — my good friend, we will talk of this
another time. I know your disposition to look at every
body with lenient eyes. I will now wish you all a

196 HOME AS TOUND.

f:>od morning, and hope soon to see you again. Miss
ve, I have one word to say, if you dare trust your
self with a youth of fifty, for a minute in the library.'*

Eve rose cheerfully, and led the way to the room
her father's visiter had named. When within it, Mr.
Howel shut the door carefully, and then with a sort of
eager delight, he exclaimed —

" For heaven's sake, my dear young lady, tell me
who are these two strange gentlemen in the other
room."

"Precisely the persons my father mentioned, Mr.
Howel; Mr. Paul Powis, and Sir George Temple-
more."

" Englishmen, of course !"

" Sir George Templemore is, of course, as you say ;
but we may boast of Mr. Powis as a countryman.''

" Sir George Templemore ! — What a superb-looking
young fellow !"

" Why, yes," returned Eve, laughing ; " he, at least,
you will admit is a handsome man."

" He is wonderful ! — The other, Mr. — a — a — a — I
forget what you called him — he is pretty well too ; but
this Sir George is a princely youth."

" I rather think a majority of observers would give
the preference to the appearance of Mr. Powis," said
Eve, struggling to be steady, but permitting a blush to
heighten her colour, in despite of the effort.

" What could have induced him to come up among
these mountains — an English baronet !" resumed Mr.
Howel, without thinking of Eve's confusion. " Is he
a real lord?"

" Only a little one, Mr. Howel. You heard what
my father said of our having been fellow-travellers."

" But what does he think of us. I am dying to know
what such a man really thinks of us?"

" It is not always easy to discover what such men
really think ; although I am inclined to believe that he
is disposed to think rather favourably of some of us."

HOME AS FOUND. 197

"Ay, of you, and your father, and Mr. John. You
nave travelled, and are more than half European; but
what can he think of those who have never left Ame
rica ?"

" Even of some of those," returned Eve, smiling, " I
suspect he thinks partially."

" Well, I am glad of that. Do you happen to know
his opinion of the Emperor Nicholas ?"

" Indeed I do not remember to have heard him men
tion the Emperor's name; nor do I think he has ever
seen him."

" That is extraordinary ! Such a man should have
seen every thing, and know every thing; but I'll en
gage, at the bottom, he does know all about him. If
you happen to have any old English newspapers, as
wrappers, or by any other accident, let me beg them
of you. I care not how old they are. An English jour
nal fifty years old, is more interesting than one of ours
wet from the press."

Eve promised to send him a package, when they
shook hands and parted. As she was crossing the
hall, to rejoin the party, John Effingham stopped her.

" Has Howel made proposals ?" the gentleman in
quired, in an affected whisper.

" None, cousin Jack, beyond an offer to read the old
English newspapers I can send him."

" Yes, yes, Tom Howel will swallow all the non
sense that is timbre a Londres"

" I confess a good deal of surprise at finding a re
spectable and intelligent man so weak-minded as to
give credit to such authorities, or to form his serious
opinions on information derived from such sources."

" You may be surprised, Eve, at hearing so frank
avowals of the weakness; but, as for -the weakness
Jself, you are now in a country for which England
does all the thinking, except on subjects that touch the
current interests of the day.''

" Nay, I will nobbelieve this ! If it were true, how
17*

198 HOME AS FOUND,

came we independent of her — where did we get spiri
to war against her."

" The man who has attained his majority is inde
pendent of his father's legal control, without being in
dependent of the lessons he was taught when a child.
The soldier sometimes mutinies, and after the contest
is over, he is usually the most submissive man of the
regiment."

" All this to me is very astonishing ! I confess that
a great deal has struck me unpleasantly in this way,
since our return ; especially in ordinary society ; but I
never could have supposed it had reached to the pass
in which I see it existing in our good neighbour
Howel."

" You have witnessed one of the effects, in a matter
of no great moment to ourselves; but, as time and
years afford the means of observation and comparison,
you will perceive the effects in matters of the last mo
ment, in a national point of view. It is in human na
ture to undervalue the things with which we are fami
liar, and to form false estimates of those which are
remote, either by time, or by distance. But, go into
the drawing-room, and, in young Wenham, you wrill
find one who fancies himself a votary of a new school,
although his prejudices and mental dependence are
scarcely less obvious than those of poor Tom Howel."

The arrival of more company, among whom were
several ladies, compelled Eve to defer an examination
of Mr. Wenham's peculiarities to another opportunity.
She found many of her own sex, whom she had left
children, grown into womanhood, and not a few of
them at a period of life when they should be cultivat
ing their physical and moral powers, already oppressed
with the cares and feebleness that weigh so heavil
the young American wife.

HOME AS FOUND. 199

CHAPTER XIII.

" Nay we must longer kneel ; I am a suitor."

QUEEN KATHKRINE.

THE Effinghams were soon regularly domesticated,
arid the usual civilities had been exchanged. Many
of their old friends resumed their ancient intercourse,
and some new acquaintances were made. The few
first visits were, as usual, rather labored and formal ;
but things soon took their natural course, and, as the
ease of country life was the aim of the family, the
temporary little bustle was quickly forgotten.

The dressing-room of Eve overlooked the lake, and,
about a week after her arrival, she was seated in it
enjoying that peculiarly ladylike luxury, which is to be
found in the process of having another gently disposing
of the hair. Annette wielded the comb, as usual, while
Ann Sidley, who was unconsciously jealous that any
one should be employed about her darling, even in this
manner, though so long accustomed to it, busied her
self in preparing the different articles of attire that
she fancied her young mistress might be disposed to
wear that morning. Grace was also in the room, hav
ing escaped from the hands of her own maid, in order
to look into one of those books which professed to give
an account of the extraction and families of the higher
classes of Great Britain, a copy of which Eve hap
pened to possess, among a large collection of books,
Almanacks de Gotha, Court Guides, and other similar
works that she had found it convenient to possess as
a traveller.

" Ah ! here it is," said Grace, in the eagerness of
one who is suddenly successful after a long and vexa
tious search.

"Here is what, coz?"

200 HOME AS FOUND.

Grace coloured, and she could have bitten her tongue
for its indiscretion, but, too ingenuous to deceive, she
reluctantly told the truth.

" I was merely looking for the account of Sir George
Templemore's family ; it is awkward to be domesti
cated with one, of whose family we are utterly igno
rant."

" Have you found the name ?"

" Yes ; I see he has two sisters, both of whom are
married, and a brother who is in the Guards. But "

' But what, dear ?"

" His title is not so very old."

" The title of no Baronet can be very old, the order
naving been instituted in the reign of James I."

" I did not know that. His ancestor was created a
baronet in 1701, I see. Now, Eve "

" Now, what, Grace ?"

" We are both — " Grace would not confine the re
mark to herself — " we are both of older families than
this ! You have even a much higher English extrac
tion ; and I think I can claim for the Van Cortlandts
more antiquity than one that dates from 1701 !"

" No one doubts it, Grace ; but what do you wish
me to understand by this 1 Are we to insist on pre
ceding Sir George, in going through a door ?"

Grace blushed to the eyes, and yet she laughed,
involuntarily.

" What nonsense ! No one thinks of such things in
America."

" Except at Washington, where, I am told, « Sena
tors' ladies' do give themselves airs. But you are
quite right, Grace; women have no rank in America,
beyond their general social rank, as ladies or no ladies,
and we will not be the first to set an example of break
ing the rule. I am afraid our blood will pass for no
thing, and that we must give place to the baronet,
unless, indeed, he recognizes the rights of the sex."

" You know I mean nothing so silly. Sir George

HOME AS FOUND. 201

Templemore does not seem to think of rank at all ;
even Mr. Fowls treats him, in all respects, as an equal,
and Sir George seems to admit it to be right."

Eve's maid, at the moment, was twisting her hair,
with the intention to put it up; but the sudden manner
in which her young mistress turned to look at Grace,
caused Annette to relinquish her grasp, and the shoul
ders of the beautiful and blooming girl were instantly
covered with the luxuriant tresses.

"And why should not Mr. Powis treat Sir George
Templemore as one every way his equal, Grace ?' she
asked, with an impetuosity unusual in one so trained in
the forms of the world.

" Why, Eve, one is a baronet, and the other is but a
simple gentleman."

Eve Effingham sat silent for quite a minute. Her
little foot moved, and she had been carefully taught,
too, that a lady-like manner, required that even this
beautiful portion of the female frame should be quiet
and unobtrusive. But America did not contain two
of the same sex, years, and social condition, less alike
in their opinions, or it might be said their prejudices,
than the two cousins. Grace Van Cortlandt, of the
best blood of her native land, had unconsciously im
bibed in childhood, the notions connected with heredi
tary rank, through the traditions of colonial manners,
by means of novels, by hearing the vulgar reproached
or condemned for their obtrusion and ignorance, and
too often justly reproached and condemned, and by
the aid of her imagination, which contributed to throw
a gloss and brilliancy over a state of things that sin
gularly gains by distance. On the other hand, with
Eve, every thing connected with such subjects was a
matter of fact. She had been thrown early into the
highest associations of Europe ; she had not only seen
royalty on its days of gala and representation, a mere
raree-show that is addressed to the senses, or purely an
observance of forms that may possibly have their mean-

202 HOME AS FOUND.

ing, but which can scarcely be said to have their rea
sons, but she had lived long and intimately among the
high-born and great, and this, too, in so many differ
ent countries, as to have destroyed the influence of the
particular nation that has transmitted so many of its
notions to America as heir-looms. By close obser
vation, she knew that arbitrary and political distinc
tions made but little difference between men of them
selves ; and so far from having become the dupe of the
glitter of life, by living so long within its immediate
influence, she had learned to discriminate between the
false and the real, and to perceive that which was truly
respectable and useful, and to know it from that which
was merely arbitrary and selfish. Eve actually fancied
that the position of an American gentleman might
readily become, nay that it ought to be the highest of
all human stations, short of that of sovereigns. Such
a man had no social superior, with the exception of
those who actually ruled, in her eyes, and this fact
she conceived, rendered him more than noble, as no
bility is usually graduated. She had been accustomed
to see her father and John Eflingham moving in the
best circles of Europe, respected for their information
and independence, undistinguished by their manners,
admired for their personal appearance, manly, cour
teous, and of noble bearing and principles, if not set
apart from the rest of mankind by an arbitrary rule
connected with rank. Rich, and possessing all the
habits that properly mark refinement, of gentle extrac
tion, of liberal attainments, walking abroad in the dig
nity of manhood, and with none between them and the
Deity, Eve had learned to regard the gentlemen of her
race as the equals in station of any of their European
associates, and as the superiors of most, in every thing
that is essential to true distinction. With her, even
titular princes and dukes had no estimation, merely as
princes and dukes ; and, as her quick mind glanced
over the long catalogue of artificial social gradations,

HOME AS FOUND. 203

and she found Grace actually attaching an importance
to the equivocal and purely conventional condition of
an English baronet, a strong sense of the ludicrous
connected itself with the idea.

" A simple gentleman, Grace !" she repeated slowly
after her cousin ; " and is not a simple gentleman, a
simple American gentleman, the equal of any gentle
man on earth — of a poor baronet, in particular ?"

" Poor baronet, Eve !"

" Yes, dear, poor baronet ; I know fully the extent
and meaning of what I say. It is true, we do riot
know as much of Mr. Powis' family," and here Eve's
colour heightened, though she made a mighty effort to
be steady and unmoved, " as we might ; but we know
he is an American ; that, at least, is something ; and
we see he is a gentleman ; and what American gentle
man, a real American gentleman, can be the inferior
of an English baronet ? Would your uncle, think you ;
would cousin Jack ; proud, lofty-minded cousin Jack,
think you, Grace, consent to receive so paltry a dis
tinction as a baronetcy, were our institutions to be so
far altered as to admit of such social classifications ?'

" Why, what would they be, Eve, if not baronets 1"

" Earls, Counts, Dukes, nay Princes ! These are the
designations of the higher classes of Europe, and such
titles, or those that are equivalent, would belong to the
higher classes here."

" I fancy that Sir George Templemore would not be
persuaded to admit all this !"

" If you had seen Miss Eve, surrounded and admired
by princes, as I have seen her, Miss Grace," said Ann
Sidley, " you would not think any simple Sir George
half good enough for her."

" Our good Nanny means, a Sir George," interrupted
Eve, laughing, " and not the Sir George in question.
But, seriously, dearest coz, it depends more on our
selves, and less on others, in what light they are to
regard us, than is commonly supposed. Do you not

^ !

„ ^ ,. _J

204 HOME AS FOUND.

suppose there are families in America who, if disposed
to raise any objections beyond those that are purely
personal, would object to baronets, and the wearers
of red ribands, as unfit matches for their daughters,
on the ground of rank ? What an absurdity would it
be, for a Sir George, or the Sir George either, to object
to a daughter of a President of the United States for
instance, on account of station ; and yet I '11 answer for
it, you would think it no personal honour, if Mr. Jack
son had a son, that he should propose to my dear father
for you. Let us respect ourselves properly, take care
to be truly ladies and gentlemen, and so far from titu
lar rank's being necessary to us, before a hundred lus
tres are past, \ve shall bring all such distinctions into
discredit, by showing that they are not necessary to
any one important interest, or to true happiness and
respectability any where."

" And do you not believe, Eve, that Sir George
Templemore thinks of the difference in station between
us?"

" I cannot answer for that," said Eve, calmly.
" The man is naturally modest ; and, it is possible,
when he sees that we belong to the highest social con
dition of a great country, he may regret that such has
not been his own good fortune in his native land ; es
pecially, Grace, since he has known you"

Grace blushed, looked pleased, delighted even, and
yet surprised. It is unnecessary to explain the causes
of the three first expressions of her emotions ; but the
last may require a short examination. Nothing but time
and a change of circumstances, can ever raise a pro
vince or a provincial town to the independent state of
feeling that so strikingly distinguishes a metropolitan
country, or a capital. It would be as rational to ex
pect that the inhabitants of the nursery should disre
gard the opinions of the drawino-room, as to believe
that the provincial should do all his own thinking. Po
litical dependency, moreover, is much more easily

HOME AS FOUND. 205

thrown aside than mental dependency. It is not sur
prising, therefore, that Grace Van Cortlandt, with her
narrow associations, general notions of liie, origin, and
provincial habits, should be the very opposite of Eve,
in all that relates to independence of thought, on sub
jects like those that they were now discussing. Had
Grace been a native of New England, even, she would
have been less influenced by the mere social rank of
the baronet than was actually the case; for, while the
population of that part of the Union feel more of the
general subserviency to Great Britain than the popula
tion of any other portion of the republic, they probably
feel less of it, in this particular form, from the circum
stance that their colonial habits were less connected
with the aristocratical usages of the mother country.
Grace was allied by blood, too, with the higher classes
of England, as, indeed, was the fact with most of the
old families among the New York gentry ; and the
traditions of her race came in aid of the traditions of
her colony, to continue the profound deference she
felt for an English title. Eve might have been equally
subjected to the same feelings, had she not been re
moved into another sphere at so early a period of life,
where she imbibed the notions already mentioned —
notions that were quite as effectually rooted in her
moral system, as those of Grace herself could be in
her own.

" This is a strange way of viewing the rank of a
baronet, Eve!" Grace exclaimed, as soon as she had
a little recovered from the confusion caused by the
personal allusion. " I greatly question if you can induce
Sir George Templemore to see his own position with
your eyes."

" No, my dear; I think he will be much more likely
to regard, not only that, but most other things, with
the eyes of another person. We will now talk of
more agreeable things, however ; for I confess, when
1 Jo dwell on titles, I have a taste for the more

VOL. I 18

206 HOME AS FOUND.

princely appellations ; and that a simple chevalier cac
scarce excite a feeling that such is the theme."

" Nay, Eve," interrupted Grace, with spirit, " an
English baronet is noble. Sir George Templemore
assured me that, as lately as last evening. The heralds,
I believe, have quite recently established that fact to
their own satisfaction."

" I am glad of it, dear," returned Eve, with diffi
culty refraining from gaping, " as it will be of great
importance to them, in their own eyes. At all events,
I concede that Sir George Templemore, knight or
baronet, big baron or little baron, is a noble fellow ;
and what more can any reasonable person desire. Do
you know, sweet coz, that the Wigwam will be full to
overflowing next week ? — that it will be necessary to
light our council-fire, and to smoke the pipe of many
welcomes ?"

" I have understood Mr. Pow7is, that his kinsman,
^Captain Ducie, will arrive on Monday."

" And Mrs. Hawker will come on Tuesday, Mr. and
Mrs. Bloomfield on Wednesday, and honest, brave,
straight-forward, literati-hating Captain Truck, on
Thursday, at the latest. We shall be a large country-
circle, and I hear the gentlemen talking of the boats,
and other amusements. But I believe my father has a
consultation in the library, at which he wishes us to
be present ; \ve will join him, if you please."

As Eve's toilette was now completed, the twro ladies
rose, and descended together to join the party below.
Mr. Effingham was standing at a table that was co
vered with maps, while two or three respectable-look
ing men, master-mechanics, were at his side. The
manners of these men were quiet, civil, and respectful,
having a mixture of manly simplicity, with a proper
deference for the years and station of the master of
the house ; though all but one, wore their hats. The
one who formed the exception, had become refined by
a long intercourse with this particular family ; and his

HOME AS FOUND* 20?

acquired taste had taught him that, respect for himself,
as well as for decency, rendered it necessary to observe
the Jong-established rules of decorum, in his inter
course with others. His companions, though without
a particle of coarseness, or any rudeness of intention,
W7ere less decorous, simply from a loose habit, that is
insensibly taking the place of the ancient laws of pro
priety in such matters, and which habit, it is to be
i'eared, has a part of its origin in false and impractica
ble political notions, that have been stimulated by the
arts of demagogues. Still, not one of the three hard
working, really civil, and even humane men, who
now stood covered in the library of Mr. Effingham,
was probably conscious of the impropriety of which he
was guilty, or was doing more than insensibly yielding
to a vicious and vulgar practice.

" I am glad you have come, my love," said Mr. Ef
fingham, as his daughter entered the room, " for I find
I need support in maintaining my own opinions here.
John is obstinately silent; and, as for all these other
gentlemen, I fear they have decidedly taken sides
against me."

" You can usually count on my support, dearest
father, feeble as it may be. But what is the disputed
point to-day ?"

" There is a proposition to alter the interior of the
church, and our neighbour Gouge has brought the
plans, on which, as he says, he has lately altered seve
ral churches in the county. The idea is, to remove
the pews entirely, converting them into what are called
' slips,' to lower the pulpit, and to raise the floor, am
phitheatre fashion."

" Can there be a sufficient reason for this change ?"
demanded Eve, with surprise. " Slips ! The word has
a vulgar sound even, and savours of a useless innova
tion. I doubt its orthodoxy."

" It is very popular, Miss Eve," answered Arista-
bulus, advancing from a window, where he had been

208 HOME AS FOUND.

whispering assent. "This fashion takes universally
and is getting to prevail in all denominations."

Eve turned involuntarily, and to her surprise she
perceived that the editor of the Active Inquirer wag
added to their party. The salutations, on the part of
the young lady, were distant and stately, while Mr.
Dodge, who had not been able to resist public opinion,
and had actually parted with his moustachios, sim
pered, and wished to have it understood by the spec
tators, that he was on familiar terms with all the
family.

" It may be popular, Mr. Bragg," returned Eve, as
soon as she rose from her profound curtsey to Mr.
Dodge ; " but it can scarcely be said to be seemly.
This is, indeed, changing the order of things, by ele
vating the sinner, and depressing the saint."

" You forget, Miss Eve, that under the old plan, the
people could not see; they were kept unnaturally
down, if one can so express it, while nobody had a
good look-out but the parson and the singers in the
front row of the gallery. This was unjust."

" I do not conceive, sir, that a good look-out, as
you term it, is at all essential to devotion, or that one
cannot as well listen to instruction when beneath the
teacher, as when above him."

"Pardon me, Miss;" Eve recoiled, as she always
did, when Mr. Bragg used this vulgar and contempt
uous mode of address ; " we put no body up or down ;
all we aim it is a just equality — to place all, as near
as possible, on a level."

Eve gazed about her in wonder; and then she
hesitated a moment, as if distrusting her ears.

" Equality ! Equality with what ? Surely not
with the ordained ministers of the church, in the per
formance of their sacred duties! Surely not with
the Deity !"

" We do not look at it exactly in this light, ma'am.
The people build the church, that you will allow,

HOME AS FOUND. 209

Miss Effingharn ; even you will allow this, Mr. Ef
fingham."

Both the parties appealed to, bowed a simple assent
to so plain a proposition, but neither spoke.

" Well, the people building the church very natu
rally ask themselves for what purpose it was built?"

" For the worship of God," returned Eve with a
steady solemnity of manner that a little abashed even
the ordinarily indomitable and self-composed Arista-
bulus.

" Yes, Miss ; for the worship of God and the ac
commodation of the public."

" Certainly," added Mr. Dodge; " for the public ac
commodation and for public worship ;" laying due em
phasis on the adjectives.

" Father, you, at least, will never consent to this ?"

" Not readily, my love. I confess it shocks all my
notions of propriety to see the sinner, even when he
professes to be the most humble and penitent, thrust
himself up ostentatiously, as if filled only with his own
self-love and self-importance."

" You will allow, Mr. Effingham," rejoined Aris-
tabulus, " that churches are built to accommodate the
public, as Mr. Dodge has so well remarked."

" No, sir ; they are built for the worship of God,
as my daughter has so well remarked."

" Yes, sir ; that, too, I grant you "

" As secondary to the main object — the public con
venience, Mr. Bragg unquestionably means ;" put in
John Effingham, speaking for the first time that morn
ing on the subject.

Eve turned quickly, and looked towards her kins
man. He was standing near the table, with folded
arms, and his fine face expressing all the sarcasm and
contempt that a countenance so singularly calm and
gentlemanlike, could betray.

" Cousin Jack," she said earnestly, " this ought not
to be."

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210 HOME AS FOUND.

" Cousin Eve, nevertheless this will be."

" Surely not — surely not ! Men can never so far
forget appearances as to convert the temple of God
into a theatre, in which the convenience of the spec
tators is the one great object to be kept in view !"

" You have travelled, sir," said John Effingharn, in*
dicating by his eye that he addressed Mr. Dodge, in
particular, " and must have entered places of worship
in other parts of the world. Did not the simple
beauty of the manner in which all classes, the great
and the humble, the rich and the poor, kneel in a
common humility before the altar, strike you agree
ably, on such occasions ; in Catholic countries, in par
ticular ?"

" Bless me ! no, Mr. John Effingham. I was dis
gusted at the meanness of their rites, and really
shocked at the abject manner in which the people
knelt on the cold dajnp stones, as if they were no bet
ter than beggars."

" And were they not beggars ?" asked Eve, with
almost a severity of tone : " ought they not so to con
sider themselves, when petitioning for mercy of the
one great and omnipotent God ?"

" Why, Miss Effingham, the people will rule ; and
it is useless to pretend to tell them that they shall not
have the highest seats in the church as well as in the
state. Really, I can see no ground why a parson
should be raised above his parishioners. The new-
order churches consult the public convenience, and
place every body on a level, as it might be. Now,
in old times, a family was buried in its pew; it could
neither see nor be seen ; and I can remember the
time when I could just get a look of our clergyman's
wig, for he was an old-school man ; and as for his
fellow-creatures, one might as well be praying in his
own closet. I must say I am a supporter of liberty
if it be only in pews."

" I am sorry, Mr. Dodge," answered Eve, mildly

HOME AS FOUND. 211

" you did not extend your travels into the countries
of the Mussulmans, where most Christian sects might
get some useful notions concerning the part of wor
ship, at least, that is connected wTith appearances.
There you would have seen no seats, but sinners
bowing down in a mass, on the cold stones, and all
thoughts of cushioned pews and drawing-room con
veniences unknown. We Protestants have improved
on our Catholic forefathers in this respect; and the
innovation of which you now speak, in my eyes is an
irreverent, almost a sinful, invasion of the proprieties
of the temple."

" Ah, Miss Eve, this comes from substituting forms
for the substance of things," exclaimed the editor.
" For my part, I can say, I was truly shocked with
the extravagancies I witnessed, in the way of wor
ship, in most of the countries I visited. Would you
think it, Mr. Bragg, rational beings, real bond fide liv
ing men and women, kneeling on the stone pavement,
like so many camels in the Desert," Mr. Dodge loved
to draw his images from the different parts of the world
he had seen, " ready to receive the burthens of their
masters ; not a pew, not a cushion, not a single com
fort that is suitable to a free and intelligent being, but
every thing conducted in the most abject manner, as
if accountable human souls were no better than so
many mutes in a Turkish palace."

" You ought to mention this in the Active Inquirer,"
said Aristabulus.

" All in good time, sir ; I have many things in le-
serve, among which I propose to give a few remarks,
I dare say they will be very worthless ones, on the
impropriety of a rational being's ever kneeling. To my
notion, gentlemen and ladies, God never intended an
American to kneel."

The respectable mechanics W7ho stood around the
table did not absolutely assent to this proposition, for
one of them actually remarked that " he saw no great

212 HOME AS FOUND.

harm in a man's kneeling to the Deity ;" but they evi
dently inclined to the opinion that the new-school of
pews was far better than the old.

"It always appears to me,MissEffingham," said one,
" that I hear and understand the sermon better in one
of the low pews, than in one of the old high-backed
things, that look so much like pounds."

" But can you withdraw into yourself better, sir ?
Can you more truly devote all your thoughts, with a
suitable singleness of heart, to the worship of God ?"

" You mean in the prayers, now, I rather con
clude?"

" Certainly, sir, I mean in the prayers and the
thanksgivings."

" Why, we leave them pretty much to the parson ;
though 1 will own it is not quite as easy leaning on
the edge of one of the new-school pews as on one of
the old. They are better for sitting, but not so good
for standing. But then the sitting posture at prayers
is quite coming into favour among our people, Miss
Effingham, as well as among yours. The sermon is
the main chance, after all."

" Yes," observed Mr. Gouge, " give me good,
strong preaching, any day, in preference to good
praying. A man may get along with second-rate
prayers, but he stands in need of first-rate preach

ing."

" These gentlemen consider religion a little like a
cordial on a cold day," observed John Effingham,
" which is to be taken in sufficient doses to make the
blood circulate. They are not the men to be pounded
in pews, like lost sheep, not they ?"

"Mr. John will always have his say;" one re
marked : and then Mr. Effingham dismissed the party
by telling them he would think of the matter.

When the mechanics were gone, the subject was
discussed at some length between those that remain
ed — all the Effinghams agreeing that they would op-

HOME AS FOUND. 213

pose the innovation, as irreverent in appearance,
unsuited to the retirement and self-abasement that best
comported with prayer, and opposed to the delicacy
of their own habits; while Messrs. Bragg and Dodge
contended to the last that such changes were loudly
called for by the popular sentiment — that it was un
suited to the dignity of a man to be * pounded,' even
in a church — and virtually, that a good, « stirring'
sermon, as they called it, was of far more account,
in public worship, than all the prayers and praises
that could issue from the heart or throat.

CHAPTER XIV.

" We'll follow Cade— we'll follow Cade."

MOB.

" THE views of this Mr. Bragg, and of our old fel
low-traveller, Mr. Dodge, appear to be peculiar on
the subjer.t of religious forms," observed Sir George
Templemore, as he descended the little lawn before
the Wigwam, in company with the three ladies,
Paul Powis, and John Effingham, on their way to
the lake. " I should think it would be difficult to
find another Christian, who objects to kneeling at
prayer."

" Therein you are mistaken, Templemore," an
swered Paul ; " for this country, to say nothing of one
sect which holds it in utter abomination, is filled with
them. Our pious ancestors, like neophytes, ran into
extremes, on the subject of forms, as well as in other
matters. When you go to Philadelphia, Miss Effing-
ham, you will see an instance of a most ludicrous na
ture — ludicrous, if there were not something painfully
revolting mingled with it — of the manner in which
men can strain at a gnat and swallow a camel ; and

214 HOME AS FOUND.

which, I am sorry to say, is immediately connected
with our own church."

It was music to Eve's ears, to hear Paul Powis
speak of his pious ancestors, as being American, and
to find him so thoroughly identifying himself with her
own native land ; for, while condemning so many of
its practices, and so much alive to its absurdities and
contradictions, our heroine had seett too much of
other countries, not to take an honest pride in the real
excellencies of her own. There was, also, a soothing
pleasure in hearing him openly own that he belonged
to the same church as herself.

" And what is there ridiculous in Philadelphia, in
particular, and in connection with our own church ?"
she asked. " I am not so easily disposed '*o find fault
where the venerable church is concerned."

" You know that the Protestants, in their horror of
idolatry, discontinued, in a great degree, the use of
the cross, as an outward religious symbol; and that
there was probably a time when there was not a single
cross to be seen in the whole of a country that was
settled by those who made a profession of love for
Christ, and a dependence on his expiation, the great
business of their lives ?"

" Certainly. We all know our predecessors were
a little over-rigid and scrupulous on all the points con
nected with outward appearances."

" They certainly contrived to render the religious
rites as little pleasing to the senses as possible, by aim
ing at a sublimation that peculiarly favours spiritual
pride and a pious conceit. I do not know whether
travelling has had the same effect on you, as it has
produced on me; but I find all my inherited antipa
thies to the mere visible representation of the cross,
superseded by a sort of solemn affection for it, as a
symbol, when it is plain, and unaccompanied by any
of those bloody and minute accessories that are so
often seen around it in Catholic countries. The Ger-

HOME AS FOUND. 215

man Protestants, who usually ornament the altar with
a cross, first cured me of the disrelish I imbibed, on
this subject, in childhood."

" We, also, I think, cousin John, were agreeably
struck with the same usage in Germany. From feei-
ing a species of nervousness at the sight of a cross, I
came to love to see it ; and I think you must have
undergone a similar change ; for I have discovered
no less than three among the ornaments of the great
window of the entrance tower, at the Wigwam."

" You might have discovered one, also, in every
door of the building, whether great or small, young
lady. Our pious ancestors, as Powis calls them,
much of whose piety, by the way, was any thing but
meliorated with spiritual humility or Christian charity,
were such ignoramuses as to set up crosses in every
door they built, even while they veiled their eyes in
holy horror whenever the sacred symbol was seen in
a church."

" Every door !" exclaimed the Protestants of the
party.

" Yes, literally every door, I might almost say ;
certainly every panelled door that was constructed
twenty years since. I first discovered the secret of
our blunder, when visiting a castle in France, that
dated back from the time of the crusade. It \vas a
chateau of the Montmorencies, that had passed into
the hands of the Conde family by marriage ; and the
courtly old domestic, who showed me the curiosities,
pointed out to me the stone croix in the windows,
which has caused the latter to be called croisees, as a
pious usage of the crusaders. Turning to a door, I
saw the same crosses in the wooden stiles ; and if you
cast an eye on the first humble door that you may
pass in this village, you will detect the same symbol
staring you boldly in the face, in the very heart of a
population that would almost expire at the thoughts

216 HOME AS FOUND.

of placing such a sign of the beast on their very
thresholds."

The whole party expressed their surprise; but
the first door they passed corroborated this account,
and proved the accuracy of John Effingham's state
ments. Catholic zeal and ingenuity could not have
wrought more accurate symbols of this peculiar sign
of the sect ; and yet, here they stood, staring every
passenger in the face, as if mocking the ignorant and
exaggerated pretension which would lay undue stress
on the minor points of a religion, the essence of which
was faith and humility.

" And the Philadelphia church t" said Eve, quickly,
so soon as her curiosity was satisfied on the subject
of the door ; " I am now more impatient than ever, to
learn what silly blunder we have also committed
there."

" Impious would almost be a better term," Paul
answered. " The only church spire that existed for
half a century, in that town, was surmounted by a
mitre, while the cross was studiously rejected !"

A silence followed ; for there is often more true ar
gument in simply presenting the facts of a case, than
in all the rhetoric and logic that could be urged, by
way of auxiliaries. Every one saw the egregious
folly, not to say presumption, of the mistake; and at
the moment, every one wondered how a common-
sense community could have committed so indecent a
blunder. We are mistaken. There was an excep
tion to the general feeling in the person of Sir George
Templemore. To his church-and-state notions, and
anti-catholic prejudices, which were quite as much
political as religious, there was every thing that was
proper, and nothing that was wrong, in rejecting a
cross for a mitre.

" The church, no doubt, was Episcopal, Powis,"
he remarked, " and it was not Roman. What better
symbol than the mitre could be chosen ?"

HOME AS FOUND. 217

" Now I reflect, it is not so very strange," said
Grace, eagerly, " for you will remember, Mr. Effing-
ham, that Protestants attach the idea of idolatry to the
cross, as it is used by Catholics."

" And of bishops, peers in parliament, church and
state, to a mitre."

" Yes, but the church in question I have seen ; and
it was erected before the war of the revolution. It
was an English rather than an American church."

" It was, indeed, an English church, rather than
an American ; and Templemore is very right to de
fend it, mitre and all."

" I dare say, a bishop officiated at its altar?"

" I dare say — nay, I know, he did ; and, I will
add, he would rather that the mitre were two hun
dred feet in the air, than down on his own simple,
white-haired, apostolical-looking head. But enough
of divinity for the morning ; yonder is Tom with the
boat, let us to our oars."

The party were now on the little wharf that served
as a village-landing, and the boatman mentioned lay
off, in waiting for the arrival of his fare. Instead of
using him, however, the man was dismissed ; the gen
tlemen preferring to handle the oars themselves.
Aquatic excursions were of constant occurrence in
the warm months, on that beautifully limpid sheet of
water, and it was the practice to dispense with the
regular boatmen, whenever good oarsmen were to be
found among the company.

As soon as the light buoyant skiff was brought to
the side of the wharf, the wrhole party embarked ; and
Paul and the baronet taking the oars, they soon
urged the boat from the shore.

" The world is getting to be too confined for the
adventurous spirit of the age," said Sir George, as he
and his companion pulled leisurely along, taking the
direction of the eastern shore, beneath the forest-clad
cliffs of which the ladies had expressed a wish to be

VOL. I. 19

218 HOME AS FOUND.

rowed ; " here are Powis and myself actually rowing
together on a mountain lake of America, after having
boated as companions on the coast of Africa, and on
the margin of the Great Desert. Polynesia, and
Terra Australis, may yet see us in company, as hardy
cruisers."

" The spirit of the age is, indeed, working won
ders in the way you mean," said John Effingham.
" Countries of which our fathers merely read, are get
ting to be as familiar as our own homes to their sons ;
and, with you, one can hardly foresee to what a pass
of adventure the generation or two that will follow
us may not reach."

" Vraiment, c^estfort extraordinaire de se trouver sur
un lac Americain" exclaimed Mademoiselle^Viefville.

" More extraordinary than to find one's self on a
Swiss lake, think you, my dear Mademoiselle Vief-
ville ?"

" Non, non, metis tout aussi extraordinaire pour une
Parisienne."

" I am now about to introduce you, Mr. John Ef
fingham and Miss Van Cortlandt excepted," Eve con
tinued, " to the wonders and curiosities of this lake
and region. There, near the small house that is
erected over a spring of delicious water, stood the
hut of Natty Bumppo, once known throughout all these
mountains as a renowned hunter ; a man who had
the simplicity of a woodsman, the heroism of a sav
age, the faith of a Christian, and the feelings of a poet.
A better than he, after his fashion, seldom lived."

" We have all heard of him," said the baronet,
looking round curiously ; " and must all feel an inte
rest in what concerns so brave and just a man. I
would I could see his counterpart."

" Alas !" said John Effingham, " the days of the
* Leather-stockings' have passed away. He'preceded
me in life, and I see few remains of his character
in a region where spsculation is more rife than mo-

HOME AS FOUND. 219

ralizing, and emigrants are plentier than hunters.
Natty probably chose that spot for his hut on account
of the vicinity of the spring: is it not so, Miss Effing-
ham t"

" He did ; and yonder little fountain that you see
gushing from the thicket, and which comes glancing
like diamonds into the lake, is called the « Fairy
Spring,' by some flight of poetry that, like so many
of our feelings, must have been imported ; for I see
no connection between the name and the character
of the country, fairies having never been known, even
"by tradition, in Otsego."

The boat now came under a shore where the trees
fringed the very water, frequently overhanging the
element that mirrored their fantastic forms At this
point, a light skiff was moving leisurely along in
their own direction, bnt a short, distance in advance.
On a hint from John Effingham, a few vigorous
strokes of the oars brought the two boats near each
other.

" This is the flag-ship," half whispered John Effing-
ham, as they came near the other skiff, " containing no
less a man than the * commodore.' Formerly, the
chief of the lake was an admiral, but that was in
times when, living nearer to the monarchy, we re
tained some of the European terms ; now, no man
rises higher than a commodore in America, whether
it be on the ocean or on the Otsego, whatever may be
his merits or his services. A charming day, com
modore ; I rejoice to see you still afloat, in your
glory."

The commodore, a tall, thin, athletic man of seven
ty, with a white head, and movements that were
quick as those of a boy, had not glanced aside at the
approaching boat, until he was thus saluted in the
well-known voice of John Effingham. He then turned
his head, however, and scanning the whole party
through his spectacles, he smiled good-naturedly, made

220 HOME AS FOUND.

a flourish with one hand, while he continued paddling
with the other, for he stood erect and straight in the
stern of his skiff, and answered heartily —

" A fine morning, Mr. John, and the right time of
the moon for boating. This is not a real scientific
day for the fish, perhaps; but I have just come out to
see that all the points and bays are in their right
places."

" How is it, commodore, that the water near the
village is less limpid than common, and that even up
here, we see so many specks floating on its sur
face?"

" What a question for Mr. John Effingham to ask
on his native water ! So much for travelling in far
countries, where a man forgets quite as much as he
learns, I fear." Here the commodore turned entirely
round, and raising an open hand in an oratorical man
ner, he added, — " You must know, ladies and gentle
men, that the lake is in blow."

" In blow, commodore ! I did not know that the
lake bore its blossoms."

" It does, sir, nevertheless. Ay, Mr. John, and its
fruits, too ; but the last must be dug for, like pota
toes. There have been no miraculous draughts of
the fishes, of late years, in the Otsego, ladies and gen
tlemen; but it needs the scientific touch, and the know
ledge of baits, to get a fin of any of your true game
above the water, now-a-days. Well, I have had the
head of the sogdollager thrice in the open air, in my
time; though I am told the admiral actually got hold
of him once writh his hand."

" The sogdollager," said Eve, much amused with
the singularities of the man, wrhom she perfectly re
membered to have been commander of the lake, even
in her own infancy; "we must be indebted to you
for an explanation of that term, as well as for the
meaning of your allusion to the head and the open
air."

HOME AS FOUND. 221

" A sogdollager, young lady, is the perfection of a
thing. I know Mr. Grant used to say there was no
such word in the dictionary ; but then there are many
words that ought to be in the dictionaries that have
been forgotten by the printers. In the way of salmon
trout, the sogdollager is their commodore. Now, la
dies and gentlemen, I should not like to tell you all I
know about the patriarch of this lake, for you would
scarcely believe me ; but if he would not weigh a
hundred when cleaned, there is not an ox in the county
that will weigh a pound when slaughtered."

" You say you had his head above water?" said
John Effingharn.

" Thrice, Mr. John. The first time was thirty
years ago ; and I confess I lost him, on that occa
sion, by want of science; for the art is not learned in
a day, and I had then followed the business but ten
years. The second time was five years later; and I
had then been fishing expressly for the old gentleman,
about a month. For near a minute, it was a matter
of dispute between us, whether he should come out
of the hike or I go into it ; but I actually got his gills
in plain sight. That was a glorious haul ! Washing-
ington did not feel better the night Cornwallis surren
dered, than I felt on that great occasion !"

" One never knows the feelings of another, it
seems. I should have thought disappointment at the
loss would have been the prevailing sentiment on that
great occasion, as you so justly term it."

" So it would have been, Mr. John, with an unsci
entific fisherman ; but we experienced hands know
better. Glory is to be measured by quality, and not
by quantity, ladies and gentlemen ; and I look on it
as a greater feather in a man's cap, to see the sog-
dollager's head above water, for half a minute, than
to bring home a skiff filled with pickerel. The last
time I got a look at the old gentleman, I did not try
to get him into the boat, but we sat and conversed
19*

222 HOME AS FOUND.

for near two minutes ; he in the \vater, and I in the
skiff."

"Conversed!" exclaimed Eve, "and with a fish,
too ! What could the animal have to say !"

" Why, young lady, a fish can talk as well as one
of ourselves ; the only difficulty is to understand what
he says. I have heard the old settlers affirm, that the
Leather-stocking used to talk for hours at a time, with
the animals of the forest."

" You knew the Leather-stocking, commodore ?"

" No, young lady, I am sorry to say I never had
the pleasure of looking on him even. He was a great
man! They may talk of their Jeffersons and Jack-
sons, but I set down Washington and Natty Bumppc
as the two only really great men of my time."

" What do you think of Bonaparte, commodore ?"
inquired Paul.

" Well, sir, Bonaparte had some strong points
about him, I do really believe. But he could have
been nothing to the Leather-stocking, in the \voods !
It's no great matter, young gentleman, to be a great
man among your inhabitants of cities — what I call
umbrella people. Why, Natty was almost as great
with the spear as with the rifle ; though I never
heard that he got a sight of the sogdollager."

** We shall meet again this summer, commodore,"
said John Effingham ; " the ladies wish to hear the
echoes, and we must leave you."

"All very natural, Mr. John," returned the com
modore, laughing, and again flourishing his hand in
his own peculiar manner. " The women all love to
hear the echoes, for they are not satisfied with what
they have once said, but they like to hear it over
again. I never knew a lady come on the Otsego, but
one of the first things she did was to get paddled to
the Speaking Rocks, to have a chat with herself. They
come out in such numbers, sometimes, and then all
talk at once, in a way quite to confuse the echo. I

HOME AS FOUND. 223

suppose you have heard, young lady, the opinion peo
ple have now got concerning these voices."

" I cannot say I have ever heard more than that
they are some of the most perfect echoes known ;"
answered Eve, turning her body, so as to face the
old man, as the skiff of the party passed that of the
veteran fisherman.

" Some people maintain that there is no echo at all,
and that the sounds we hear come from the spirit of
the Leather-stocking, which keeps about its old haunts,
and repeats every thing we say, in mockery of our
invasion of the woods. I do not say this notion is
true, or that it is my own ; but we all know that Nat
ty did dislike to see a new settler arrive in the moun
tains, and that he loved a tree as a muskrat loves
water. They show a pine up here on the side of the
Vision, which he notched at every new-comer, until
reaching seventeen, his honest old heart could go no
farther, and he gave the matter up in despair."

" This is so poetical, commodore, it is a pity it
cannot be true. I like this explanation of the * Speak
ing Rocks,' much better than that implied by the name
of ' Fairy Spring.' "

" You* are quite right, young lady," called out the
fisherman, as the boats separated still farther ; " there
never was any fairy known in Otsego ; but the time
has been when we could boast of a Natty Bumppo."

Here the commodore flourished his hand again,
and Eve nodded her adieus. The skiff of the party
continued to pull slowly along the fringed shore, oc
casionally sheering more into the lake, to avoid some
overhanging and nearly horizontal tree, and then re
turning so closely to the land, as barely to clear the
pebbles of the narrow strand with the oar.

Eve thought she had never beheld a more wild or
beautifully variegated foliage, than that which the
whole leafy mountain-side presented. More than half
of the forest of tall, solemn pines, that had veiled the

224 HOME AS FOUND.

earth when the country was first settled, had already
disappeared ; but, agreeably to one of the mysterious
laws by which nature is governed, a rich second
growth, that included nearly every variety of Ameri
can wood, had shot up in their places. The rich
Rembrandt-like hemlocks, in particular, were per
fectly beautiful, contrasting admirably with the live
lier tints of the various deciduous trees. Here and
there, some flowering shrub rendered the picture
gay, while masses of the rich chestnut, in blossom,
lay in clouds of natural glory among the dark tops of
the pines.

The gentlemen pulled the light skifF fully a mile
under this overhanging foliage, occasionally fright
ening some migratory bird from a branch, or a wa
ter-fowl from the narrow strand. At length, John Ef-
fingham desired them to cease rowing, and managing
the skiff for a minute or two with the paddle which
he had used in steering, he desired the whole party
to look up, announcing to them that they were beneath
the ' Silent Pine.'

A common exclamation of pleasure succeeded the
upward glance ; for it is seldom that a tree is seen to
more advantage than that which immediately attract
ed every eye. The pine stood on the bank, with its
roots embedded in the earth, a few feet higher than the
level of the lake, but in such a situation as to bring
the distance above the water into the apparent height
of the tree. Like all of its kind that grows in the
dense forests of America, its increase, for a thousand
years, had been upward; and it now stood in solitary
glory, a memorial of what the mountains which were
yet so rich in vegetation had really been in their days
of nature and pride. For near a hundred feet above
the eye, the even round trunk was branchless, and
then commenced the dark-green masses of foliage,
which clung around the stem like smoke ascending in
wreaths. The tall column-like tree had inclined to-

HOME AS FOUND. 225

wards the light when struggling among its fellows,
and it now so far overhung the lake, that its summit
may have been some ten or fifteen feet without the
base. A gentle, graceful curve added to the effect
of this variation from the perpendicular, and infused
enough of the fearful into the grand, to render the
picture sublime. Although there was not a breath
of wind on the lake, the currents were strong enough
above the forest to move this lofty object, and it was
just possible to detect a slight, graceful yielding of
the very uppermost boughs to the passing air.

" This pine is ill-named," cried Sir George Tem-
plemore, " for it is the most eloquent tree eye of mine
has ever looked on !"

" It is, indeed, eloquent," answered Eve ; "' one
hears it speak even now of the fierce storms that have
whistled round its tops — of the seasons that have
passed since it extricated that verdant cap from the
throng of sisters that grew beneath it, and of all that
has passed on the Otsego, when this limpid lake lay,
like a gem embedded in the forest. When the Con
queror first landed in England, this tree stood on the___
spot where it now stands ! Here, then, is at last,""/
an American antiquity !"

" A true and regulated taste, Miss Effingham,"
said Paul, " has pointed out to you one of the real
charms of the country. Were we to think less of
the artificial, and more of our natural excellencies,
we should render ourselves less liable to criticism."

Eve was never inattentive when Paul spoke ; and
her colour heightened, as he paid this compliment to
her taste, but still her soft blue eye was riveted on
the pine.

" Silent it may be, in one respect, but it is, indeed,
all eloquence in another," she resumed, with a fer
vour that was not lessened by Paul's remark. " That
crest of verdure, which resembles a plume of fea-

226 HOME AS FOUND.

thers, speaks of a thousand things to the imagina
tion."

" I have never known a person of any poetry, who
came under this tree," said John Effingham, " that
did not fall into this very train of thought. I once
brought a man celebrated for his genius here, and,
after gazing for a minute or two at the high, green
tuft that tops the tree, he exclaimed, ' that mass of
green waved there in the fierce light when Columbus
first ventured into the unknown sea.' It is, indeed,
eloquent ; for it tells the same glowing tale to all \vho
approach it — a tale fraught with feeling and recol
lections."

" And yet its silence is, after all, its eloquence,"
added Paul ; ** and the name is not so misplaced as
one might at first think."

;' It probably obtained its name from some fancied
contrast to the garrulous rocks that lie up yonder,
half concealed by the forest. If you will ply the
oars, gentlemen, we will now hold a little communion
with the spirit of the Leather-stocking."

The young men complied ; and in about five min
utes, the skiff was off in the lake, at the distance of
fifty rods from the shore, where the whole mountain
side came at one glance into the view. Here they
lay on their oars, and John Effingham called out to
the rocks a " good morning," in a clear distinct
voice. The mocking sounds were thrown back
again, with a closeness of resemblance that actually
startled the novice. Then followed other calls and
other repetitions of the echoes, which did not lose the
minutest intonation of the voice.

*' This a .Dually surpasses the celebrated echoes of
the Rhip? " cried the delighted Eve ; " for, though
those do give the strains of the bugle so clearly, 1 do
not th'Dk they answer to the voice with so much
fidel'y,"

" Vou are very right, Eve," replied her kinsman,

HOME AS FOUND. 227

* for I can recall no place where so perfect and ac
curate an echo is to be heard as at these speaking
rocks. By increasing our distance to half a mile,
and using a bugle, as I well know, from actual ex
periment, we should get back entire passages of an
air. The interval between the sound and the echo,
too, would be distinct, and would give time for an
undivided attention. Whatever may be said of the
* pine/ these rocks are most aptly named ; and if the
spirit of Leather-stocking has any concern with the
matter, he is a mocking spirit."

John Effingham now looked at his watch, and
then he explained to the party a pleasure he had in
store for them. On a sort of small, public prome
nade, that lay at the point where the river flowed
out of the lake, stood a rude shell of a building that
was called the " gun-house." Here, a speaking pic
ture of the entire security of the country, from foes
within as well as from foes without, were kept two
or three pieces of field artillery, with doors so open
that any one might enter the building, and even use
the guns at will, although they properly belonged to
the organized corps of the state.

One of these guns had been sent a short distance
down the valley; and John Effingham informed m*3
companions that they might look momentarily for its
reports to arouse the echoes of the mountains. He
was still speaking when the gun was fired, its muzzle
being turned eastward. The sound first reached the
side of the Vision, abreast of the village, whence the
reverberations reissued, and rolled along the range,
from cave to cave, and cliff to cliff, and wood to
wood, until they were lost, like distant thunder, two
or three leagues to the northward. The experi
ment was thrice repeated, and always with the same
magnificent effect, the western hills actually echo
ing the echoes of the eastern mountains, like the dying
strains of some falling music.

228 HOME AS FOUND.

" Such a locality would be a treasure in the vicinity
of a melo-dramatic theatre," said Paul, laughing, " for
certainly, no artificial thunder I have ever heard has
equalled* this. This sheet of water might even re
ceive a gondola."

" And yet, I fear one accustomed to the boundless
horizon of the ocean, might in time weary of it," an
swered John Effingham, significantly.

Paul made no answer ; and the party rowed away
in silence.

" Yonder is the spot wrhere we have so long been
accustomed to resort for Pic-Nics," said Eve, pointing
out a lovely place, that was beautifully shaded by oid
oaks, and on which stood a rude house that was much
dilapidated, and indeed injured, by the hands of man.
John Effingham smiled, as his cousin showed the
place to her companions, promising them an early
and a nearer view of its beauties.

" By the way, Miss Effingham," he said, " I sup
pose you flatter yourself with being the heiress of that
desirable retreat ?"

" It is very natural that, at some day, though 1
trust a very distant one, I should succeed to that
which belongs to my dear father."

" Both natural and legal, my fair cousin ; but you
are yet to learn that there is a power that threatens
to rise up and dispute your claim."

" What power — human power, at least — can dis
pute the lawful claim of an owner to his property ?
That Point has been ours ever since civilized man
has dwelt among these hills ; who will presume to rob
us of it TJ

" You will be much surprised to discover that there
is such a power, and that there is actually a disposi
tion to exercise it. The public — the all-powerful,
omnipotent, overruling, law-making, law-breaking
public — has a passing caprice to possess itself of your

HOME AS FOUND. 229

Beloved Point ; and Ned Effingham must show unu
sual energy, or it will get it ?"

" Are you serious, cousin Jack 1"

" As serious as the magnitude of the subject can
render a responsible being, as Mr. Dodge would say."

Eve said no more, but she looked vexed, and re
mained almost silent until they landed, when she has
tened to seek her father, with a view to communicate
what she had heard. Mr. Effingham listened to his
daughter, as he always did, with tender interest; and
when she had done, he kissed her glowing cheek, bid
ding her not to believe that which she seemed so seri
ously to dread, possible.

"But. cousin John would not trifle with me on such
a subject, father," Eve continued : " he knows how
much I prize all those little heir-looms that are con
nected with the affections."

" We can inquire further into the affair, my child,
if it be your desire ; ring for Pierre, if you please."

Pierre answered, and a message was sent to Mr.
Bragg, requiring his presence in the library.

Aristabulus appeared, by no means in the best hu
mour, for he disliked having been omitted in the late
excursion o-n the lake, fancying that he had a com
munity-right to share in all his neighbour's amuse
ments, though he had sufficient self-command to con
ceal his feelings.

" I wish to know, sir," Mr. Effingham commenced,
without introduction, " whether there can be any
mistake concerning the ownership of the Fishing
Point on the west side of the lake."

" Certainly not, sir ; it belongs to the public."

Mr. Effingham's cheek glowed, and he looked as
tonished ; but he remained calm.

" The public ! Do you gravely affirm, Mr. Bragg,
that the public pretends to claim that Point?"

" Claim, Mr. Effingham ! as long as I have resided
in this county, I have never heard its right disputed."

VOL. I. 20

230 HOME AS FOUND.

" Your residence in this county, sir, is not of very
ancient date, and nothing is easier than that you may
be mistaken. I confess some curiosity to know in
what manner the public has acquired its title to the
spot. You are a lawyer, Mr. Bragg, and may give
an intelligible account of it."

" Why, sir, your father gave it to them in his life
time. Every body, in all this region, will tell you as
much as this."

" Do you suppose, Mr. Bragg, there is any body in
all this region who will swear to the fact? Proof,
you well know, is very requisite even to obtain jus
tice."

" I much question, sir, if there be any body in all
this region that will not swear to the fact. It is the
common tradition of the whole country ; and, to be
frank with you, sir, there is a little displeasure, be
cause Mr. John Effingham has talked of giving pri
vate entertainments on the Point."

" This, then, only shows how idly and inconsider
ately the traditions of the country take their rise.
But, as I wish to understand all the points of the case,
do me the favour to walk into the village, and inquire
of those whom you think the best informed in the
matter, what they know of the Point, in order that I
may regulate my course accordingly. Be particular,
if you please, on the subject of title, as one would not
wish to move in the dark."

Aristabulus quitted the house immediately, and Eve,
perceiving that things were in the right train, left her
father alone to meditate on what had just passed.
Mr. Effingham walked up and down his library for
some time, much disturbed, for the spot in question
was identified with all his early feelings and recolleo
tions ; and if there were a foot of land on earth, to
which he was more attached than to all others, next
to his immediate residence, it was this. Still, he could
not conceal from himself, in despite of his opposition

HOME AS FOUND. 231

fo John Effingham's sarcasms, that his native country
had undergone many changes since he last resided in
it, and tiiat some of these changes were quite sensibly
for the worse. The spirit of misrule was abroad, and
the lawless and unprincipled held bold language, when
it suited their purpose to intimidate. As he ran over
in his mind, however, the facts of the case, and the
nature of his right, he smiled to think that any one
should contest it, and sat dowrn to his writing, almost
forgetting that there had been any question at all on
the unpleasant subject.

Aristabulus was absent for several hours, nor did
he return until Mr. Effingham was dressed for dinner,
and alone in the library, again, having absolutely lost
all recollection of the commission he had given his
agent.

" It is. as I told you, sir— the public insists that it
owns the Point ; and I feel it my duty to say, Mr.
Effingham, that the public is determined to maintain
its claim."

" Then, Mr. Bragg, it is proper I should tell the
public that it is not the owner of the Point, but that /
am its owner, and that I am determined to maintain
my claim."

" It is hard to kick against the pricks, Mr. Effing
ham."

" It is so, sir, as the public will discover, if it per
severe in invading a private right."

" Why, sir, some of those with whom I have con
versed have gone so far as to desire me to tell you —
1 trust my motive will not be mistaken — — "

" If you have any communication to make, Mr.
Bragg, do it without reserve. It is proper I should
know the truth exactly."

" Well, then, sir, I am the bearer of something like
a defiance; the people wish you to know that they
hold your right cheaply, and that they laugh at it.
Not to mince matters, they defy you."

232 HOME AS FOUND.

" I thank you for this frankness, Mr. Bragg, and it
increases my respect for your character. Affafrs are
now at such a pass, that it is necessary to act. If
you will amuse yourself with a book for a moment, I
shall have further occasion for your kindness."

Arista bums did not read, for he was too much filled
with wonder at seeing a man so coolly set about con
tending with that awful public which he himself as
habitually deferred to, as any Asiatic slave defers to
his monarch. Indeed, nothing but his being sustained
by that omnipotent power, as lie viewed the power of
the public to be, had emboldened him to speak so
openly to his employer, for Aristabulus felt a secret
confidence that, right or wrong, it was always safe in
America to make the most fearless professions in fa
vour of the great body of the community. In the
mean time, Mr. Effingham wrote a simple advertise
ment against trespassing on the property in question,
and handed it to the other, with a request that he
would have it inserted in the number of the vil
lage paper that was to appear next morning. Mr.
Bragg took the advertisement, and went to execute
the duty without comment.

The evening arrived before Mr. Effingham was
again alone, when, being by himself in the library
once more, Mr. Bragg entered, full of his subject.
He was followed by John Effingham, who had gained
an inkling of what had passed.

" I regret to say, Mr. Effingham," Aristabulus
commenced, "that your advertisement has created
one of the greatest excitements it has ever been my
ill-fortune to witness in Templeton."

" All of wrhich ought to be very encouraging to us,
Mr. Bragg, as men under excitement are usually
wrong."

" Very true, sir, as regards individual excitement,
but this is a public excitement."

" I am not at all aware that the fact, in the least,

HOME AS FOUND. 233

alters the case. If one excited man is apt to do silly
things, half a dozen backers will be very likely to in
crease his folly."

Aristabulus listened with wonder, for excitement
was one of the means for effecting public objects, so
much practised by men of his habits, that it had never
crossed his mind any single individual could be in
different to its effect. To own the truth, he had anti
cipated so much unpopularity, from his unavoidable
connexion with the affair, as to have contributed him
self in producing the excitement, with the hope of
" choking Mr. Effingham off," as he had elegantly
expressed it to one of his intimates, in the vernacular
of the country.

" A public excitement is a powerful engine, Mr.
Effingham !" he exclaimed, in a sort of politico-
pious horror.

" I am fully aware, sir, that it may be even a fear
fully powerful engine. Excited men, acting in masses,
compose what are called mobs, and have committed
a tLo-usand excesses."

" Your advertisement is, to the last degree, disrel
ished ; to be very sincere, it is awfully unpopular P

" I suppose it is always what you term an unpop
ular act, so far as the individuals opposed are con
cerned, to resist aggression."

" But they call your advertisement aggression, sir."

" In that simple fact exist all the merits of the
question. If I own this property, the public, or that
oortion of it which is connected with this affair, are
aggressors; and so much more in the wrong that they
are many against one; if they own the property, I
am not only wrong, but very indiscreet."

The calmness with which Mr. Effingham spoke
had an effect on Aristabulus, and, for a moment, he
was staggered. It was only for a moment, however,
as the pains and penalties of unpopularity presented
themselves afresh to an imagination that had been so
20*

234 HOME AS FOUND.

long accustomed to ^tudy the popular caprice, that it
had got to deem the public favour the one great
good of life.

" But they say, they own the Point, Mr. Effingham."

" And / say, they do not own the Point, Mr. Bragg ;
never did own it ; and, with my consent, never shall
own it."

" This is purely a matter of fact," observed John
Effingham, " and I confess I am curious to know how
or whence this potent public derives its title. You
are lawyer enough, Mr. Bragg, to know that the
public can hold property only by use, or by especial
statute. Now, under which title does this claim pre
sent itself."

" First, by use, sir, and then by especial gift."

" The use, you are aware, must be adverse, or as
opposed to the title of the other claimants. Now, I
am a living witness that my late uncle permitted the
public to use this Point, and that the public accepted
the conditions. Its use, therefore, has not been ad
verse, or, at least, not for a time sufficient to make
title. Every hour that my cousin has permitted the
public to enjoy his property, adds to his right, as well
as to the obligation conferred on that public, and in
creases the duty of the latter to cease intruding,
whenever he desires it. If there is an especial gift, as
I understand you to say, from my late uncle, there
must also be a law to enable the public to hold, or a
trustee; which is the fact?"

" I admit, Mr. John Effingham, that I have seen
neither deed nor law. and I doubt if the latter exist.
Still the public must have some claim, for it is impos
sible that every body should be mistaken."

" Nothing is' easier, nor any thing more common,
than for whole communities to be mistaken, ar.d
more particularly when they commence with excite
ment."

While his cousin was speaking, Mr. Effingham

HOME AS FOUND, 235

went to a secretary, and taking out a large bundle
of papers, he laid it down on the table, unfolding sev
eral parchment deeds, to which massive seals, bearing
the arms of the late colony, as well as those of Eng
land, \vere pendent.

" Here are my titles, sir," he said, addressing Aris-
tabulus pointedly ; " if the public has a better, let it
be produced, and I shall at once submit to its claim."

" No one doubts that the King, through his author
ized agent, the Governor of the colony of New- York,
granted this estate to your predecessor, Mr. Effing-
ham ; or that it descended legally to your immediate
parent ; but all contend that your parent gave this
spot to the public, as a spot of public resort."

" I am giad that the question is narrowed down
within limits that are so easily examined. What evi
dence is there of this intention, on the part of my late
father?"

" Common report; I have talked with twenty people
in the village, and they all agree that the ' Point' has
been used by the public, as public property, from time
immemorial."

" Will you be so good, Mr. Bragg, as to namo
some of those who affirm this."

Mr. Bragg complied, naming quite the number of
persons he bad mentioned, with a readiness that prov
ed he thought he was advancing testimony of weight.

"Of all the names you have mentioned," returned
Mr. Effingham, " I never heard but three, and these
are the names of mere boys. The first dozen are
certainly the names of persons who can kwow no
more of this village than they have gleaned in the last
few years ; and several of them, I understand, have
dwelt, among us but a few weeks; nay, days."

" Have I not told you, Ned," interrupted John
Effingham, "that an American * always' means eigh
teen months, and that Mime immemorial' is only since
the last general crisis in the money market !"

236 HOME AS FOUND.

" The persons I have mentioned compose a part of
the population, sir," added Mr. Bragg, " and, one and
all, they are ready to swear that your father, by some
means or other, they are not very particular as to
minutire, gave them the right to use this property."

" They are mistaken, and I should be sorry that
any one among them should swear to such a false
hood. But here are my titles — let them show better,
or, if they can, any, indeed."

" Perhaps your father abandoned the place to the
public ; th«Is might make a good claim."

" That he did not, 1 am a living proof to the con
trary ; he left, it to his heirs at his death, and I myself
exercised full right of ownership over it, until I went
abroad. I did not travel with it in my pocket, sir, it
is true ; but I left it to the protection of the laws,
which. I trust, are as available to the rich as to the
poor, although this is a free country."

"Well, sir, I suppose a jury must determine tho
point, as you seem firm ; though I warn you, Mr.
Effingham, as one who knows his country, that a ver
dict, in the face of a popular feeling, is rather a hope
less matter. If they prove that your late father in
tended to abandon or give this property to the public,
yoiK' case will be lost."

Mr. Effingham looked among the papers a moment,
and selecting one, he handed it to Mr. Bragg, first
pointing out to his notice a particular paragraph.

" This, sir, is my late father's will," Mr. Effingham
said mildly; " and, in that particular clause, you will
find that he makes a special devise of this very
1 Point,' leaving it to his heirs, in such terms as to
put any intention to give it to the public quite out of
the question. This, at least, is the latest evidence I.
his oiily son, executor, and heir possess of his fixal
wishes ; if that wondering and time-immemorial pub
lic of which you speak, has a better, I wait with
patience that it may be produced."

HOME AS FOUND. 237

The composed manner of Mr. Effingham had de
ceived Aristabulus, who did not anticipate any proof
so completely annihilating to the pretensions of the
public, as that he now held in his hand. It was a
simple, brie«f devise, disposing of the piece of property
in question, and left it without dispute, that Mr. Effing-
ham had succeeded to all the rights of his father, with
no reservation or condition of any sort.

*' This is very extraordinary !" exclaimed Mr.
Bragg, when he had read the clause seven times,
each perusal contributing to leave the case still clearer
in favour of his employer, the individual, and still
stronger against the hoped-for future employers, the
people. " The public ought to know of this bequest
of the late Mr. Effingham."

" I think it ought, sir, before it pretended to deprive
his child of his property ; or, rather, it ought to be
certain, at least, that there was no such devise."

" You win excuse me, Mr. Effingham, but I think
it is incumbent on a private citizen, in a case of this
sort, when the public has taken up a wrong notion,
as I now admit is clearly the fact as regards the
Point, to enlighten it, and to inform it that it does not
own the spot."

" This has been done already, Mr. Bragg, in the
advertisement you had the goodness to carry to the
printers, although I deny that there exists any such
obligation."

" But, sir, they object to the mode you have chosen
to set them right."

" Th.e mode is usual, I believe, in the case of tres
passes."

" They expect something different, sir, in an affair
in which the public is — is — is — all — "

" Wrong," put in John Effingham, pointedly. " I
have heard something of this out of doors, Ned, and
bbme you for your moderation. Is it true that you
had told several of your neighbours that you have no

238 HOME AS FOUND.

wish to prevent them from using the Point, but that
your sole object is merely to settle the question of
right, and to prevent intrusions on your family when
it is enjoying its own place of retirement?'*

" Certainly, John, my only wish is to preserve the
property for those to whom it is especially devised,
to allow those who have the best, nay, the only right
to it, its undisturbed possession, occasionally, and to
prevent any more of that injury to the trees that has
been committed by some of those rude men, who al
ways fancy themselves so c^mplete-ly all the public,
as to be masters, in their own particular persons,
whenever the public has any claim. I can have no
wish to deprive my neighbours of the innocent plea
sure of visiting the Point, though I am fully deter
mined they shall not deprive me of my property."

" You are far more indulgent than I should be, or,
perhaps, than you will be yourself, when you read
this."

As John Effingham spoke, he handed his kinsman
a small handbill, which purported to call a meeting,
for that night, of the inhabitants of Templeton, to re
sist his arrogant claim to the disputed property. This
handbill had the usual marks of a feeble and vulgar
malignancy about it, affecting to call Mr. Effingham,
" one Mr. Effingham," and it was anonymous.

" This is scarcely worth our attention, John," said
Mr. Effingham, mildly. " Meetings of this sort can
not decide a legal title, and no man who respects
himself will be the tool of so pitiful an attempt to
frighten a citizen from maintaining his rights."

'* I agree with you, as respects the meeting, which
has been conceived in ignorance and low malice, and
will probably end, as all such efforts end, in ridicule.
But "

" Excuse me, Mr. John," interrupted Aristabulus,
" there is an awful excitement ! Some have even
spoken of Lynching !"

HOME AS FOUND. 239

" Then," said Mr. Effingham, " it does, indeed, re
quire that we should be more firm. Do you, sir, know
of any person who has dared to use such a menace'?"

Aristabulus quailed before the stern eye of Mr,
Effingham, and he regretted having communicated so
much, though he had communicated nothing but the
truth. He stammered out an obscure and half-intel
ligible explanation, and proposed to attend the meet
ing, in person, in order that he might be in the way
of understanding the subject, without falling into the
danger of mistake. To this Mr. Effingham assented,
as he felt too indignant at this outrage on all his
rights, whether as a citizen or a man, to wish to pur
sue the subject with his agent that night. Aristabulus
departed, and John Effingham remained closeted with
his kinsman until the family retired. During this long
interview, the former communicated many things to
the latter, in relation to this very affair, of which the
owner of the property, until then, had been profoundly
ignorant.

END OF VOL. I.

HOME AS FOUND.

njtul in

BY J. FENIMORE COOPER

"Thou art perfect."
TV.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

NEW EDITION.

NEW YORK:
STRINGER AND TOWNSENI),

1852.

Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1838, by

J. FENNIMORE COOPER,
in the clerk's office of the district court ot the United States*

in and for the eastern district of Pennsylvania.

HOME AS FOUND.

CHAPTER I.

Ynere shall be, in England, seven half-penny loaves sold for a penny ;
th* inree-hooped pot shall have ten hoops ; and I will make it felony to
drink *riiail heer: all the realm shall be in common, and, in Cheapside shall
my paif»«?y go to grass." — • — JACK CADE.

THOUGH the affair of the Point continued to agitate
the village of Templeton next day, and for many days,
it was little remembered in the Wigwam. Confident
of his right, Mr. Effingham, though naturally indig
nant at the abuse of his long liberality, through which
alone the public had been permitted to frequent the
place, and this too, quite often, to his own discomfort
and disappointment, had dismissed the subject tempo
rarily from his mind, and was already engaged in his
ordinary pursuits. Not so, however, with Mr. Bragg.
Agreeably to promise, he had attended the meeting ;
and now he seemed to regulate all his movements by
a sort of mysterious self-importance, as if the reposi
tory of some secret of unusual consequence. No one
regarded his manner, however; for Aristabulus, and
his secrets, and opinions, were all of too little value,
in the eyes of most of the party, to attract peculiar
attention. He found a sympathetic listener in Mr.
Dodge, happily ; that person having been invited
through the courtesy of Mr. Effingham, to pass the
day with those in whose company^ though very unwil-

4 HOME AS FOUND.

lingly on the editor's part certainly, he had gone
through so many dangerous trials. These two, then,
soon became intimate, and to have seen their shrugs,
significant whisperings, and frequent conferences in
corners, on 3 who did not know them, might have fan
cied their shoulders burthened with the weight of the
state.

But all this pantomime, which was intended to
awaken curiosity, was lost on the company in general.
The ladies, attended by Paul and the Baronet, proceed
ed into the forest on foot, for a morning's walk, while
the two Messrs. Effinghams continued to read the daily
journals, that were received from town each morning,
with a most provoking indifference. Neither Arista-
bulus, nor Mr. Dodge, could resist any longer ; and,
after exhausting their ingenuity, in the vain effort to
induce one of the two gentlemen to question them in
relation to the meeting of the previous night, the desire
to be doing fairly overcame their affected mysterious-
ness, and a formal request was made to Mr. Effing-
ham to give them an audience in the library. As the
latter, who suspected the nature of the interview, re
quested his kinsman to make one in it, the four were
soon alone, in the apartment so often named.

Even now, that his own request for the interview
was granted, Aristabulus hesitated about proceeding,
until a mild intimation from Mr. Effingham that he was
ready to hear his communication, told the agent that
it was too late to change his determination.

" I attended the meeting last night, Mr. Effingham,"
Aristabulus commenced, " agreeably to our arrange
ment, and I feel the utmost regret at being compelled
to lay the result before a gentleman for whom I enter
tain so profound a respect."

" There was then a meeting?" said Mr. Effingham,
inclining his body slightly, by way of acknowledgment
for the other's compliment.

" There was, sir ; and I think, Mr. Dodge, we may
say an overflowing one."

HOME AS FOUND. 5

" The public was fairly represented," returned the
editor, " as many as fifty or sixty having been pres
ent."

" The public has a perfect right to meet, and to con
sult on its claims to anything it may conceive itself en
titled to enjoy," observed Mr. Effingham ; " I can have
no possible objection to such a course, though I think
it would have consulted its own dignity more, had it
insisted on being convoked by more respectable per
sons than those who, I understand, wTere foremost in
this affair, and in terms better suited to its own sense
of propriety."

Aristabulus glanced at Mr. Dodge, and Mr. Dodge
glanced back at Mr. Bragg, for neither of these politi
cal mushrooms could conceive of the dignity and fair-
mindedness with which a gentleman could view an
affair of this nature.

" They passed a set of resolutions, Mr. Effingham ;"
Aristabulus resumed, writh the gravity with which he
ever spoke of things of this nature. "A set of resolu
tions, sir !"

" That was to be expected," returned his employer,
smiling; "the Americans are a set-of-resolutions-pass-
ing people. Three cannot get together, without naming
a chairman and secretary, and a resolution is as much
a consequence of such an * organization,' — I believe
that is the approved word, — as an egg is the accom
paniment of the cackling of a hen."

" But, sir, you do not yet know the nature of those
resolutions !"

" Very true, Mr. Bragg ; that is a piece of know
ledge I am to have the pleasure of obtaining from
you."

Again Aristabulus glanced at Steadfast, and Stead
fast threw back the look of surprise, for, to both it was
matter of real astonishment that any man should be so
.ndifferent to the resolutions of a meeting that had been
yegularly organized, with a chairman and secretary
1*

6 HOME AS FOUND.

at its head, and which so unequivocally professed to
be the public.

" I am reluctant to discharge this duty, Mr. Effing-
ham, but as you insist on its performance it must be
done. In the first place, they resolved that your fa
ther meant to give them the Point."

" A decision that must clearly settle the matter, and
which will destroy all my father's own resolutions on the
same subject. Did they stop at the Point, Mr. Bragg,
or did they resolve that my father also gave them his
wife and children?"

" No, sir, nothing was said concerning the latter."

" I cannot properly express my gratitude for the for
bearance, as they had just as good a right to pass this
resolution, as to pass the other."

" The public's is an awful power, Mr. Effingham !"

" Indeed it is, sir, but fortunately, that of the re-pub
lic is still more awful, and I shall look to the latter for
support, in this ' crisis ' — that is the word, too, is it not,
Mr. John Effingham ?"

" If you mean a change of administration, the upset
ting of a stage, or the death of a cart-horse ; they are
all equally crisises, in the American vocabulary."

" Well, Mr. Bragg, having resolved that it knewT my
late father's intentions better than he knew them him
self, as is apparent from the mistake he made in his
will, what next did the public dispose of, in the pleni
tude of its power ?'

" It resolved, sir, that it was your duty to carry out
the intentions of your father."

" In that, then, we are perfectly of a mind ; as the
public will most probably discover, before we get
through with this matter. This is one of the most
pious resolutions I ever knew7 the public to pass. Did
it proceed any farther 1"

Mr. Bragg, notwithstanding the long-encouraged
truckling to the sets of men, whom he was accustomed
to dignify with the name of the public, had a profound

HOME AS FOUND.

deference for the principles, character, and station of
Mr. Effingham, that no sophistry, or self-encourage
ment in the practices of social confusion, could over
come ; and he paused before he communicated the next
resolution to his employers. But perceiving that both
the latter and his cousin were quietly waiting to hear
it, he was fain to overcome 'his scruples.

" They have openly libelled you, by passing resolu
tions declaring you to be odious."

" That, indeed, is a strong measure, and, in the in
terest of good manners and of good morals, it may
call for a rebuke. No one can care less than myself,
Mr. Bragg, for the opinions of those who have 'suffi
ciently demonstrated that their opinions are of no value,
by the heedless manner in which they have permitted
themselves to fall into this error ; but it is proceeding
too far, when a few members of the community pre
sume to take these liberties w.th a private individual,
and that, moreover, in a case affecting a pretended
claim of their own ; and I desire you to tell those con
cerned, that if they dare to publish their resolution de
claring me to be odious, I will teach them what they
now do not appear to know, that we live in a country
of laws. I shall not prosecute them, but I shall indict
them for the offence, and I hope this is plainly ex
pressed."

Aristabulus stood aghast! To indict the public was
a step he had never heard of before, and he began to
perceive that the question actually had two sides. Still,
his awe of public meetings, and his habitua* regard for
popularity, induced him not to give up the matter, with
out another struggle.

" They have already ordered their proceedings to bo
published, Mr. Effingham !" he said, as if such an order
were not to be countermanded.

" I fancy, sir, that when it comes to the issue, and
the penalties of a prosecution present themselves, their
leaders wiL oegin to recollect their individuality, and

8 HOME AS FOUND.

to think less of their public character. They who
hunt in droves, like wolves, are seldom very valiant
when singled out from their pack. The end \vill show."

" I heartily wish this unpleasant affair might be ami
cably settled," added Aristabulus.

" One might, indeed, fancy so," observed John Ef-
fingham, " since no one likes to be persecuted."

"But, Mr. John, the public thinks itself persecuted,
in this affair."

" The term, as applied to a body that not only makes,
but which executes, the law, is so palpably absurd,
that I am surprised any man can presume to use it. But,
Mr. Bragg, you have seen documents that cannot err,
and know that the public has not the smallest right to
this bit of land."

" All very true, sir ; but you will please to remember,
that the people do not know what I now know."

" And you will please to remember, sir, that when
people choose to act affirmatively, in so high-handed a
manner as this, they are bound to know what they are
about. Ignorance in such a matter, is like the drunk
ard's plea of intoxication ; it merely makes the offence
worse."

" Do you not think, Mr. John, that Mr. Effjngham
might have acquainted these citizens with the real state
of the case ? Are the people so very wrong that they
have fallen into a mistake ?'

" Since you ask this question plainly, Mr. Bragg, it
shall be answered with equal sincerity. Mr. Effing-
ham is a man of mature years ; the known child, ex
ecutor, and heir of one who, it is admitted all round,
was the master of the controverted property. Knowing
his own business, this Mr. Effingham, in sight of the
grave of his fathers, beneath the paternal roof, has the
intolerable impudence "

" Arrogance is the word, Jack," said Mr. Effing-
ham, smiling.

" Ay, the intolerable arrogance to suppose that his

HOME AS FOUND. 9

own is his own ; and this he dares to affirm, without
having had the politeness to send his title-deeds, and
private papers, round to those who have been so short
a time in the place, that they might well know every
thing that has occurred in it for the last half century
Oh thou naughty, arrogant fellow, Ned!"

" Mr. John, you appear to forget that the public has
more claims to be treated with attention, than a single
individual. If it has fallen into error, it ought to be
undeceived.'*

" No doubt, sir ; and I advise Mr. Effingham to send
you, his agent, to every man, woman and child in the
county, with the Patent of the King, all the mesne con
veyances and wills, in your pocket, in order that vou
may read them at length to each individual, witli a
view that every man, woman and child, may be satis
fied that he or she is not the owner of Edward Effing-
ham's lands !"

** Nay, sir, a shorter process might be adopted."

" It might, indeed, sir, and such a process has been
adopted by my cousin, in giving the usual notice, in
the news-paper, against trespassing. But, Mr. Bragg,
you must know that I took great pains, three years
since, when repairing this house, to correct the mis
take on this very point, into which I found that your
immaculate public had fallen, through its disposition to
know more of other people's affairs, than those con
cerned knew of themselves."

Aristabulus said no more, but gave the matter up
in despair. On quitting the house, he proceeded forth
with, to inform those most interested of the determina
tion of Mr. Effingham, not to be trampled on by any
pretended meeting of the public. Common sense, not
to say common honesty, began to resume its sway, and
prudence put in its plea, by way of applying the cor
rective. Both he and Mr. Dodge, however, agreed
that there was an unheard-of temerity in thus resisting
the people, and this too without a commensurate

10 HOME AS FOUND*

object, as the pecuniary value of the disputed point
was of no material consequence to either party.

The reader is not, by any means, to suppose that
Aristabulws Bragg and Steadfast Dodge belonged to
the same variety of the human species, in consequence
of their unity of sentiment in this affair, and certain
other general points of resemblance in their manner
and modes of thinking. As a matter of necessity,
each partook of those features of caste, condition, ori
gin, and association that characterize their particular
set; but when it came to the nicer distinctions that
mark true individuality, it would not have been easy
to find two men more essentially different in character.
The first was bold, morally and physically, aspiring,
self-possessed, shrewd, singularly adapted to succeed
in his schemes where he knew the parties, intelligent,
after his tastes, and apt. Had it been his fortune to
be thrown earlier into a better sphere, the same natural
qualities that rendered him so expert in his present
situation, would have conduced to his improvement,
arid most probably would have formed a gentleman, a
scholar, and one who could have contributed largely
to the welfare and tastes of his fellow- creatures. That
such was not his fate, was more his misfortune than
his fault, for his plastic character had readily taken
the impression of those things that from propinquity
alone, pressed hardest on it. On the other hand Stead
fast was a hypocrite by nature, cowardly, envious, and
malignant ; and circumstances had only lent their aid
to the natural tendencies of his disposition. That two
men so differently constituted at their births, should
meet, as it might be in a common centre, in so many
of their habits and opinions, was merely the result of
accident and education.

Among the other points of resemblance between
these two persons, was that fault of confounding the
cause with the effects of the peculiar institutions under
which they had been educated and lived. Because

HOME AS FOUND. 11

the law gave to the public, that authority which, under
other systems, is entrusted either to one, or to the few,
they believed the public was invested with far more
power than a right understanding of their own prin
ciples would have shown. In a word, both these per
sons made a mistake which is getting to be too com
mon in America, that of supposing the institutions of
the country were all means and no end. Under this
erroneous impression they saw only the machinery of
the government, becoming entirely forgetful that the
power which was given to the people collectively, was
only so given to secure to them as perfect a liberty as
possible, in their characters of individuals. Neither
had risen sufficiently above vulgar notions, to under
stand that public opinion, in order to be omnipotent, or
even formidable beyond the inflictions of the moment,
must be right; and that, if a solitary man renders him
self contemptible by taking up false notions incon
siderately and unjustly, bodies of men, falling into the
same error, incur the same penalties, with the addi
tional stigma of having acted as cowards.

There was also another common mistake into which
Messrs. Bragg and Dodge had permitted themselves
to fall, through the want of a proper distinction be
tween principles. Resisting the popular will, on the
part of an individual, they considered arrogance and
aristocracy, per se, without at all entering into the
question of the right, or the wrong. The people, rightly
enough in the general signification of the term, they
deemed to be sovereign ; and they belonged to a nume
rous class, who view disobedience to the sovereign in
a democracy, although it be in his illegal caprices, very
much as the subject of a despot views disobedience to
his prince.

It is scarcely necessary to say, that Mr. Effingham
and his cousin viewed these matters differently. Clear
headed, just-minded, and liberal in all his practices, the
former, in particular, was greatly pained by the recent

12 HOME AS FOUffD.

occurrence ; and he paced his library in silence, for se
veral minutes after Mr. Bragg and .his companion had
withdrawn, really too much grieved to speak.

"This is, altogether, a most extraordinary proce
dure, John," he at length observed, " and, it strikes me,
that it is but an indifferent reward for the liberality
with which I have permitted others to use my proper
ty, these thirty years ; often, very often, as you well
know, to my own discomfort, and to that of my
friends.'*

" I have told you, Ned, that you were not to expect
the America on your return, that you left behind you
on your departure for Europe. I insist that no coun
try has so much altered for the worse, in so short a
time."

" That unequalled pecuniary prosperity should sen
sibly impair the manners of what is termed the world,
by introducing suddenly large bodies of uninstructed
and untrained men and women into society, is a natu
ral consequence of obvious causes ; that it should cor
rupt morals, even, wre have a right to expect, for we
are taught to belfeve it the most corrupting influence
under which men can live ; but, I confess, I did not
expect to see the day, when a body of strangers, birds
of passage, creatures of an hour, should assume a right
to call on the old and long-established inhabitants of a
country, to prove their claims to their possessions, and
this, too, in an unusual and unheard-of manner, under
the penalty of being violently deprived of them !"

" Long established !" repeated John Effingham,
laughing ; " what do you term long established ? Have
you not been absent a dozen years, and do not these
people reduce everything to the level of their own ha
bits. I suppose, now, you fancy you can go to Rome,
or Jerusalem, or Constantinople, and remain four or
five lustres, and then come coolly back to Templeton,
and, on taking possession of this house again, call your
self an old resident."

HOME AS FOUND. 13

"I certainly do suppose I have that right. How
many English, Russians, and Germans, did we meet
in Italy, the residents of years, who still retained all
their natural and local right and feelings '''

" Ay, that is in countries where society is perma
nent, and men get accustomed to look on the same
objects, hear the same names, and see the same faces,
for their entire lives. I have had the curiosity to in
quire, and have ascertained that none of the old, per
manent families have been active in this affair of the
Point but that all the clamour has been made by those
you call the birds of passage. But what of that?
These people fancy everything reduced to the legal
six months required to vote ; and that rotation in per
sons is as necessary to republicanism as rotation in
office."

" Is it not extraordinary that persons who can know
so little on the subject, should be thus indiscreet and
positive?"

" It is not extraordinary in America. Look about youT~|
Ned, and you will see adventurers uppermost every
where ; in the government, in your towns, in your vil
lages, in the country, even. We are a nation of changes.
Much of this, I admit, is the fair consequence of le
gitimate causes, as an immense region, in forest, can
not be peopled on any other conditions. But this
necessity has infected the entire national character,
and men get to be impatient of any sameness, even
though it be useful. Everything goes to confirm this
feeling, instead of opposing it. The constant recur
rences of the elections accustom men to changes in
their public functionaries; the great increase in the
population brings new faces; and the sudden accumu
lations of property place new men in conspicuous sta
tions. The architecture of the country is barely be
coming sufficiently respectable to render it desirable
to preserve the buildings, without which we shall have
no monuments to revere. In short, everything con-

VOL. II. 2

14 HOME AS FOUND.

tributes to produce such a state of things, painful as it
may be to all of any feeling, and little to oppose it."

" You colour highly, Jack ; and no picture loses in
tints, in being retouched by you."

" Look into the first paper that offers, and you will
see the young men of the country hardily invited to
meet by themselves, to consult concerning public af
fairs, as if they were impatient of the counsels and ex
perience of their fathers. No country can prosper,
where the ordinary mode of transacting the business
connected with the root of the government, commences
with this impiety."

" This is a disagreeable feature in the national cha
racter, certainly ; but we must remember the arts em
ployed by the designing to practise on the inexperi
enced."

" Had I a son, who presumed to denounce the wis
dom and experience of his father, in this disrespectful
manner, I would disinherit the rascal !"

"Ah, Jack, bachelor's children are notoriously well
educated, and \vell mannered. We will hope, how
ever, that time wrill bring its changes also, and that
one of them will be a greater constancy in persons,
things, and the affections."

" Time will bring its changes, Ned ; but all of them
that are connected writh individual rights, as opposed
to popular caprice, or popular interests, are likely to
be in the wrong direction."

" The tendency is certainly to substitute popularity
for the right, but we must take the good with the bad.
Even you, Jack, would not exchange this popular op
pression for any other system under which you have
lived."

" I don't know that — I don't know that Of all ty
ranny, a vulgar tyranny is to me the most odious."

" You used to admire the English system, but I think
observation has lessened your particular admiration in
that quarter;" said Mr. Effingham, smiling in a way
that his cousin perfectly understood.

HOME AS FOUND. 15

'* Harkee, Ned ; we all take up false notions in
youth, and this was one of mine ; but, of the two, I
should prefer the cold, dogged domination of English
law, with its fruits, the heartlessness of a sophistication
without parallel, to being trampled on by every arrant
blackguard that may happen to traverse this valley, in
his wanderings after dollars. There is one thing you
yourself must admit ; the public is a little too apt to
neglect the duties it ought to discharge, and to assume
duties it has no right to fulfil."

This remark ended the discourse.

CHAPTER II.

Her breast was a brave palace, a broad street,
Where all heroic, ample thoughts did meet,
Where nature such a tenement had ta'en,
That other souls, to hers, dwelt in a lane.

JOHN NORTON

THE village of Templeton, it has been already inti
mated, was a miniature town. Although it contained
within the circle of its houses, half-a-dozen residences
with grounds, and which were dignified with names,
as has been also said, it did not cover a surface of
more than a mile square ; that disposition to concen
tration, which is as peculiar to an American town, as
the disposition to diffusion is peculiar to the country
population, and which seems almost to prescribe that
a private dwelling shall have but three windows in
front, and a facade of twenty-five feet, having presided
at the birth of this spot, as well as at the birth of so
many of its predecessors and contemporaries. In one
of its more retired streets (for Templeton had its pub
licity and retirement, the latter after a very village-

16 HOME AS FOUND.

fashion, however,) dwelt a widow-be\vitched of small
worldly means, five children, and of great capacity for
circulating intelligence. Mrs. Abbott, for so was this
demi-relict called, was just on the verge of what is
termed the "good society" of the village, the most un
easy of all positions for an ambitious and ci-devant
pretty woman to be placed in. She had not yet aban
doned the hope of obtaining a divorce and its suites;
was singularly, nay, rabidly devout, if we may coin
the adverb ; in her own eyes she w7as perfection, in
those of her neighbours slightly objectionable ; and she
\vas altogether a droll, and by no means an unusual
compound of piety, censoriousness, charity, proscrip
tion, gossip, kindness, meddling, ill-nature, and decency.

The establishment of Mrs. Abbott, like her house,
was necessarily very small, and she kept no servant
but a girl she called her help, a very suitable appella
tion, by the way, as they did most of the work of the
menage in common. This girl, in addition to cooking
and washing, was the confidant of all her employer's
wandering notions of mankind in general, and of her
neighbours in particular ; as often helping her mistress
in circulating her comments on the latter, as in any
thing else.

Mrs. Abbott knew nothing of the Effinghams, excep
by a hearsay that got its intelligence from her own
school, being herself a late arrival in the place. She
had selected Templeton as a residence on account of
its cheapness, and, having neglected to comply with
the forms of the world, by hesitating about making the
customary visit to the Wigwam, she began to resent, in
her spirit at least, Eve's delicate forbearance from ob
truding herself, where, agreeably to all usage, she had
a perfect right to suppose she \vas not desired. It was
in this spirit, then, that she sat, conversing with Jennv,
as the maid of all work was called, the morning after
the conversation related in the last chapter, in her
snug little parlour, sometimes plying her needle, and

HOME AS FOUND. 17

oftener thrusting her head out of a window which com
manded a view of the principal street of the place, in
order to see what her neighbours might be about.

" This is a most extraordinary course Mr. Effing-
ham has taken concerning the Point," said Mrs. Abbott,
" and I do hope the people will bring him to his senses.
Why, Jenny, the public has used that place ever since
I can remember, and I have now lived in Templeton
quite fifteen months. — What can induce Mr. Howel to
go so often to that barber's shop, which stands directly
opposite the parlour windows of Mrs. Bennett — one
would think the man \vas all beard."

" I suppose Mr. Howel gets shaved sometimes," said
the logical Jenny.

"Not he; or if he does, no decent man would think
of posting himself before a lady's window to do such a
thing. — Orlando Furioso," calling to her eldest son, a
boy of eleven, " run over to Mr. Jones's store, and
listen to what the people are talking about, and bring
me back the news, as soon as any thing worth hearing
drops from any body; and stop as you comeback, my
son, and borrow neighbour Brown's gridiron. Jenny,
it is most time to think of putting over the potatoes."

•' Ma' — " cried Orlando Furioso, from the front door,
Mrs. Abbott being very rigid in requiring that all her
children should call her ' ma',' being so much behind
the age as actually not to know that ' mother ' had got
to be much the genteeler term of the two ; " Ma'," roared
Orlando Furioso, " suppose there is no news at Mr.
Jones's store ?"

" Then go to the nearest tavern ; something must be
stirring this fine morning, and I'm dying to know what
it can possibly be. Mind you bring something besides
the gridiron back with you. Hurry, or never come
home again as lon^ as you live ! As I was saying,
Jenny, the right of the public, which is our right, for
we are a part of the public, to this Point, is as clear as
dav, and I am only astonished at the impudence of Mr.
2*

18 HOME AS TOUND.

Effingham in pretending to deny it. I dare say his
French daughter has put him up to it. They say she
is monstrous arrogant !"

" Is Eve Effingham, French," said Jenny, studiously
avoiding any of the usual terms of civility and pro
priety, by way of showing her breeding — " well, I had
always thought her nothing but Templeton born !"

" What signifies where a person was born ? where
they live, is the essential thing; and Eve Effingham has
lived so long in France, that she speaks nothing but
broken English ; and Miss Debby told me last week,
that in drawing up a subscription paper for a new
cushion to the reading-desk of her people, she actually
spelt ' charity ' i carrotty." *

" Is that French, Miss Abbott?'

" I rather think it is, Jenny ; the French are very
niggardly, and give their poor carrots to live on, and
so they have adopted the word, I suppose. You, By-
ansy-Alzumy-Ann, (Bianca-Alzuma-Ann !")

" Marm !"

" Byansy-Alzumy-Ann ! who taught you to call me
inarm ! Is this the way you have learned your cate
chism ? Say, ma', this instant."

" Ma'."

" Take your bonnet, my child, and run down to Mrs.
Wheaton's, and ask her if any thing new has turned
up about the Point, this morning ; and, do you hear,
Byansy-Alzumy-Ann Abbott — how the child starts
away, as if she were sent on a matter of life and
death !"

" Why, ma', I want to hear the news, too."

" Very likely, my dear, but, by stopping to get your
errand, you may learn more than by being in Such a
hurry. Stop in at Mrs. Green's, and ask how the peo
pie liked the lecture of the strange parson, last even
ing — and ask her if she can lend me a watering-pot.
Now, run, and be back as soon as possible. Never
loiter when you carry news, child.'1

HOME AS FOUND. 19

" No one has a right to stop the mail, I believe, Miss
Abbott," put in Jenny, very appositely.

" That, indeed, have they not, or else we could not
calculate the consequences. You may remember,
Jenny, the pious, even, had to give up that point, pub
lic convenience being too strong for them, lloger-
Demetrius-Benjamin!" — calling to a second boy, two
years younger than his brother — " your eyes are better
than mine — who are all those people collected together
in the street. Is not Mr. Howel among them ?"

" I do not know, ma'!" answered Roger-Demetrius-
Benjamin, gaping.

" Then run, this minute, and see, and don't stop to
look for your hat. As you come back, step into the
tailor's shop and ask if your new jacket is most done,
and what the news is? I rather think, Jenny, we shall
find out something worth hearing, in the course of the
day. By the way, they do say that Grace Van Cort-
landt, Eve Effingham's cousin, is under concern."

"Well, she is the last person I should think would
be troubled about any thing, for every body says she
is so desperate rich she might eat oft' of silver, if she
liked ; and she is sure of being married, some time or
other."

" That ought to lighten her concern, you think. Oh !
it does my heart good when I see any of those flaunty
people right well exercised ! Nothing would make me
happier than to see Eve Effingham groaning fairly in
the spirit ! That would teach her to take away the peo
ple's Points."

" But, Miss Abbott, then she would become almost
as good a woman as you are yourself"

"I am a miserable, graceless, awfully wicked sin
ner ! Twenty times a day do I doubt whether I am
actually converted or not. Sin has got such a hold
of my very heart-strings, that I sometimes think they
will crack before it lets go. Rinaldo-Rinaldini-
Timothy my child, do you toddle across the way, and

20 HOME AS FOUND.

give my compliments to Mrs. Hulbert, and inquire
it' it be true that young Dickson, the lawyer, is
really engaged to Aspasia Tubbs or not? and borrow
a skimmer, or a tin pot, or any thing you can carry,
for we may want something of the sort in the course
of the day. I do believe, Jenny, that a wrorse .crea
ture than myself is hardly to be found in Templeton."

" Why, Miss Abbott," returned Jenny, who had
heard too much of this self-abasement to be much
alarmed at it, " this is giving almost as bad an account
of yourself, as I heard somebody, that I won't name,
give of you last week."

" And who is your somebody, I should like to
know? I dare say, one no better than a formalist,
who thinks that reading prayers out of a book, kneel
ing, bowing, and changing gowns, is religion ! Thank
Heaven, I 'm pretty indifferent to the opinions of such
people. Harkee, Jenny; if I thought I was no better
than some persons I could name, I 'd give the point
of salvation up, in despair !"

" Miss Abbott," roared a rugged, dirty-faced, bare
footed boy, who entered without knocking, and stood
in the middle of the room, with his hat on, with a sud
denness that denoted great readiness in entering other
people's possessions ; " Miss Abbott, ma' wants to
know if you are likely to go from home this w^eek ?"

" Why, what in nature can she want to know that
for, Ordeal Bumgrum?" Mrs. Abbott pronounced
this singular name, however, " Ordeel."

" Oh ! she icarnts to know."

" So do I warnt to know ; and know I will. Run
home this instant, and ask your mother why she has
sent you here with this message. Jenny, I am much
exercised to find out the reason Mrs. Bumgrum should
have sent Ordeal over with such a question."

" I did hear that Miss Bumgrum intended to make
a journey herself, and she may want your company."

"Here comes Ordeal back, and we shall soon be

HOME AS FOUIVD. 21

out of the clouds. What a boy that is for errands !
He is worth all my sons put together. You never see
him losing time by going round by the streets, but
away he goes over the garden fences like a cat, or he
will whip through a house, if standing in his way, as
if he were its owner, should the door happen to be
open. Well, Ordeal ?"

But Ordeal was out of breath, and although Jenny
shook him, as if to shake the news out of him, and
Mrs. Abbott actually shook her fist, in her impatience
to be enlightened, nothing could induce the child to
speak, until he had recovered his wind.

" I believe he does it on purpose," said the provoked
rmid.

" It 's just like him !" cried the mistress ; " the very
best news-carrier in the village is actually spoilt,
because he is thick-winded."

" I wish folks wouldn't make their fences so high,"
Ordeal exclaimed, the instant he found breath. " I
can't see of what use it is to make a fence people
can't climb !"

" What does your mother say ?" cried Jenny,
repeating her shake, con amore.

" Ma, wants to kno\v, Miss Abbott, if you don't
intend to use it yourself, if you will lend her your name
for a few days, to go to Utica with ? She says folks
don't treat her half as well w7hen she is called Burn-
grum, as when she has another name, and she thinks
she 'd like to try yours, this time."

" Is that all ! — You need n't have been so hurried
about such a trifle, Ordeal. Give my compliments to
your mother, and tell her she is quite welcome to my
name, and I hope it will be serviceable to her."

" She says she is willing to pay for the use of it, if
you will tell her what the damage* will be."

" Oh ! it 's not worth while to speak of such a trifle ;
I dare say she will bring it back quite as good as when
she took it away. I am no such unneighbourly or aris-

22 HOME AS FOUND.

tocratical person as to wish to keep my name all t<$
myself. Tell your mother she is welcome to mine,
and to keep it as long as she likes, and not to say any
thing about pay ; I may want to borrow hers, or some
thing else, one of these days, though, to say the truth,
my neighbours are apt to complain of me as unfriendly
and proud for not borrowing as much as a good neigh
bour ought."

Ordeal departed, leaving Mrs. Abbot in some such
condition as that of the man who had no shadow. A
rap at the door interrupted the further discussion of the
old subject, and Mr. Steadfast Dodge appeared in an
swer to the permission to enter. Mr. Dodge and Mrs.
Abbott were congenial spirits, in the way of news, he
living by it, and she living on it.

" You are very welcome, Mr. Dodge," the mistress
of the house commenced ; " I hear you passed the day,
yesterday, up at the Effinghamses."

*' Why, yes, Mrs. Abbott, the Effinghams insisted on
it, and I could not well get over the sacrifice, after
having been their shipmate so long. Besides it is a
little relief to talk French, when one has been so long
in the daily practice of it."

" I hear there is company at the house 1"

" Two of our fellow-travellers, merely. An English
baronet, and a young man of whom less is known than
one could wish. He is a mysterious person, and I hate
mystery, Mrs. Abbott."

" In that, then, Mr. Dodge, you and I are alike. 1
think every thing should be known. Indeed, that is not
a free country in which there are any secrets. I keep
nothing from my neighbours, and, to own the truth, I
do not like my neighbours to keep any thing from me."

" Then you'll hardly like the Effinghams, for I never
yet met with a more close-mouthed family. Although
I was so long in the ship with Miss Eve, I never heard
her once speak of her want of appetite, of sea-sick
ness, or of any thing relating to her ailings even ; nor

HOME AS FOUND. 23

can you imagine how close she is on the subject of the
beaux ; I do not think I ever heard her use the word,
or so much as allude to any walk or ride she ever took
with a single man. I set her down, Mrs. Abbott, as
unqualifiedly artful !"

" That you may with certainty, sir, for there is no
more sure sign that a young woman is all the while
thinking of the beaux, than her never mentioning
them."

" That I believe to be human nature ; no ingenuous
person ever thinks much of the particular subject of
conversation. What is your opinion, Mrs. Abbott, of
the contemplated match at the Wigwam V

" Match !" exclaimed Mrs. Abbott. — " What, alrea
dy! It is the most indecent thing I ever heard of I
Why, Mr. Dodge, the family has not been home a fort
night, and to think so soon of getting married ! It is
quite as bad as a widower's marrying within the
month."

Mrs. Abbott made a distinction, habitually, between
the cases of widowers and widows, as the first, she
maintained, might get married whenever they pleased,
and the latter only when they got offers ; arid she felt
just that sort of horror of a man's thinking of marry
ing too soon after the death of his wife, as might be
expected in one who actually thought of a second hus
band before the first was dead.

" Why, yes," returned Steadfast, " it is a little pre
mature, perhaps, though they have been long acquainted.
Still, as you say, it would be more decent to wait and
see what may turn up in a country, that, to them, may
be said to be a foreign land."

" But, who are the parties, Mr. Dodge."

" Miss Eve Effingham, and Mr. John Effingham."

44 Mr. John Effingham !" exclaimed the lady, who
had lent her name to a neighbour, aghast, for this was
knocking one of her own day-dreams in the head ;
"well this is too much ! But he shall not marry her,

r

24

HOME AS FOUIfJ>.

sir ; the law will prevent it, and we live in a, country
of laws. A man cannot marry his own niece."

" It is excessively improper, and ought to be put a
stop to. And yet these Effinghams do very much as
they please."

" I am very sorry to hear that ; they are extremely
disagreeable," said Mrs. Abbott, with a look of eager
inquiry, as if afraid the answer might be in the nega
tive.

" As much so as possible ; they have hardly a way
that you would like, my dear ma'am ; and are as close-
mouthed as if they were afraid of committing them
selves."

" Desperate bad news-carriers, I am told, Mr. Dodge.
There is Dorindy (Dorinda) Mudge, who was employed
there by Eve and Grace one day ; she tells me she
tried all she could to get them to talk, by speaking of
the most common things ; things that one of my chil
dren knew all about ; such as the affairs of the neigh
bourhood, and how people are getting on ; and, though
they would listen a little, and that is something, I ad
mit, not a syllable could she get in the way of answer,
or remark. She tells me that, several times, she had
a mind to quit, for it is monstrous unpleasant to asso
ciate with your tongue-tied folks."

" I dare say Miss Effingham could throw out a hint
now and then, concerning the voyage and her late fel
low-travellers," said Steadfast, casting an uneasy
glance at his companion.

" Not she. Dorindy maintains that it is impossible
to get a sentiment out of her concerning a single fel
low-creature. When she tal&ed of the late unpleasant
affair of poor neighbour Bronson's family — a melan
choly transaction that, Mr. Dodge, and I shouldn't won
der if it went to nigh break Mrs. Bronson's heart — but
when Dorindy mentioned this, which is bad enough to
stir the sensibility of a frog, neither of my young ladies
replied, or put a single question. In this respect Grace

HOME AS FOUND. 25

is as bad as Eve, and Eve is as bad as Grace, they
say. Instead of so much as seeming to wish to know
any more, what does my Miss Eve do, but turn to some
daubs of paintings, and point out to her cousin what
she was pleased to term peculiarities in Swiss usages.
Then the two hussies would talk of nature, " our beau
tiful nature" Dorindy says Eve had the impudence to
call it, and, as if human nature and its failings and
backsliding were not a fitter subject for a young wo
man's discourse, than a silly conversation about lakes,
and rocks, and trees, and as if she owned the nature
about Templeton. It is my opinion, Mr. Dodge, that
downright ignorance is at the bottom of it all, for Do
rindy says that they actually know no more of the
intricacies of the neighbourhood than if they lived in
Japan."

" All pride, Mrs. Abbott ; rank pride. They feel
themselves too great to enter into the minutiae of com
mon folks' concerns. I often tried Miss Effingham,
coming from England; and things touching private
interests, that I know she did and must understand, she
always disdainfully refused to enter into. Oh ! she is
a real Tartar, in her way ; and what she does not wish
to do, you never can make her do !"

" Have you heard that Grace is under concern ?"

" Not a breath of it : under whose preaching was
she sitting, Mrs. Abbott ?"

" That is more than I can tell you ; not under the
church parson's, I'll engage ; no one ever heard of a
real, active, regenerating, soul-reviving, spirit-groaning,
and fruit-yielding conversion under his ministry."

" No, there is very little unction in that persuasion
generally. How cold and apathetic they are, in these
soul-stirring times ! Not a sinner has been writhing on
their floor, I '11 engage, nor a wretch transferred into a
saint, in the twinkling of an eye, by that parson. Well,
we have every reason to be grateful, Mrs. Abbott."

" That we have, for most glorious have been our

VOL. II. 3

26 HOME AS FOUND.

privileges ! To be sure that is a sinful pride that can
puff up a wretched, sinful being like Eve Effihgham
to such a pass of conceit, as to induce her to think she
is raised above thinking of, and taking an interest in
the affairs of her neighbours. Now, for my part, con
version has so far opened my heart, that I do actually
feel as if I wanted to know all about the meanest crea
ture in Templeton."

" That's the true spirit, Mrs. Abbott; stick to that, and
your redemption is secure. I only edit a newspaper,
by way of showing an interest in mankind."

' " I hope, Mr. Dodge, the press does not mean to let
this matter of the Point sleep ; the press is the true
guardian of the public rights, and I can tell you the
whole community looks to it for support, in this
crisis."

" We shall not fail to do our duty," said Mr. Dodge,
looking over his shoulder, and speaking lower." " What !
shall one insignificant individual, who has not a single
right above that of the meanest citizen in the county,
oppress this great and powerful community ! What if
Mr. Effingham does own this point of land "

" But he does not own it," interrupted Mrs. Abbott.
" Ever since I have known Templeton, the public has
owned it. The public, moreover, says it owns it, and
what the public says, in this happy country, is law."

" But, allowing that the public does not own "

" It does own it, Mr. Dodge," the nameless repeated,
positively.

"Well, ma'am, own or no own, this is not a country
in which the press ought to be silent, when a solitary
individual undertakes to trample on the public. Leave
that matter to us, Mrs. Abbott ; it is in good hands, and
shall be well taken care of."

" I 'm piously glad of it !"

" I mention this to you, as to a friend," continued
Mr. Dodge, cautiously drawing from his pocket a man
uscript, which he prepared to read to his companion,
who sat with a devouring curiosity, ready to listen.

HOME AS FOUND. 27

The manuscript of Mr. Dodge contained a professed
account of the affair of the Point. It was written ob
scurely, and was not without its contradictions, but the
imagination of Mrs. Abbott supplied all the vacuums,
and reconciled all the contradictions. The article was
so liberal of its professions of contempt for Mr. Effing-
ham, that every rational man was compelled to won
der, why a quality, that is usually so passive, should,
in this particular instance, be aroused to so sudden and
violent activity. In the way of facts, not one \vas
faithfully stated ; and there were several deliberate, un
mitigated falsehoods, which went essentially to colour
the whole account.

" I think this will answer the purpose," said Stead
fast, " and we have taken means to see that it shall be
well circulated."

" This will do them good," cried Mrs. Abbott ;
almost breathless with delight. " I hope folks will
believe it."

" No fear of that. If it were a party thing, now,
one half would believe it, as a matter of course, and
the other half would not believe it, as a matter of
course; but, in a private matter, lord bless you, ma'am,
people are always ready to believe any thing that will
give them something to talk about."

Here the tete a tete was interrupted by the return of
Mrs. Abbott's different messengers, all of whom, unlike
the dove sent forth from the ark, brought back some
thing in the way of hopes. The Point was a general
theme, and, though the several accounts flatly contra
dicted each other, Mrs. Abbott, in the general benevo
lence of her pious heart, found the means to extract
corroboration of her wishes from each.

Mr. Dodge was as good as his word, and the
account appeared. The press throughout the country
seized writh avidity on any thing that helped to fill its
columns. No one appeared disposed to inquire into
the truth of the account, or after the character of the

28 HOME AS FOUND.

original authority. It was in print, and that struck the
great majority of the editors arid their readers, as a
sufficient sanction. Few, indeed, were they, who lived
so much under a proper self-control, as to hesitate ; and
this rank injustice was done a private citizen, as much
without moral restraint, as without remorse, by those,
who, to take their own accounts of the matter, were
the regular and habitual chamdons of human rights !

John EfFmgham pointed out mis extraordinary scene
of reckless wrong, to his wondering cousin, with the
cool sarcasm, with which he was apt to assail the
weaknesses and crimes of the country. His firmness,
united to that of his cousin, however, put a stop to the
publication of the resolutions of Aristabulus's meeting,
and when a sufficient time had elapsed to prove that
these prurient denouncers of their fellow-citizens had
taken wit in their anger, he procured them, and had
them published himself, as the most effectual means of
exposing the real character of the senseless mob, that
had thus disgraced liberty, by assuming its professions
and its usages.

To an observer of men, the end of this affair pre
sented several strong points for comment. As soon as
the truth became generally known, in reference to the
real ownership, and the public came to ascertain that
instead of hitherto possessing a right, it had, in fact,
been merely enjoying a favour, those wrho had commit
ted themselves b}^ their arrogant assumptions of facts,
and their indecent outrages, fell back on their self-love,
and began to find excuses for their conduct in that of
the other party. Mr. Effingham was loudly condemned
for not having done the very thing, he, in truth, had
done, viz : telling the public it did not own his pro
perty ; and when this was shown to be an absurdity,
the complaint followed that what he had done, had
been done in precisely such a mode, although it was
the mode constantly used by every one else. From
these vague and indefinite accusations, those most im-

HOME AS FOUND. 29

plicated in the wrong, began to deny all their own
original assertions, by insisting that they had known
all along, that Mr. Etfingham owned the property, but
that they did not choose he, or any other man, should
presume to tell them what they knew already. In
short, the end of this affair exhibited human nature in
its usual aspects of prevarication, untruth, contradic
tion, and inconsistency, notwithstanding the high pro
fession of liberty made by those implicated ; and they
who had been the most guilty of wrong, were loudest
in their complaints, as if they alone had suffered.

" This is not exhibiting the country to us, certainly,
after so long an absence, in its best appearance," said
Mr. Etfmgham, " I must admit, John ; but error be
longs to all regions, and to all classes of institutions."

" Ay, Ned, make the best of it, as usual ; but, if you
do not come round to my way of thinking, before you
are a twelvemonth older, I shall renounce prophesying.
I wish we could get at the bottom of Miss EtHngham's
thoughts, on this occasion."

** Miss Effingham has been grieved, disappointed,
nay, shocked," said Eve, " but, still she will not de
spair of the republic. None of our respectable neigh
bours, in the first place, have shared in this transac
tion, and that is something ; though I confess I feel
some surprise that any considerable portion of a com
munity, that respects itself, should quietly allow an ig
norant fragment of its own numbers, to misrepresent
it so grossly, in an affair that so nearly touches its own
character for common sense and justice."

" You have yet to learn, Miss Effingham, that men
can get to be so saturated with liberty, that they be
come insensible to the nicer feelings. The grossest
enormities are constantly committed in this good re
public of ours, under the pretence of being done by
the public, and for the public. The public have got to
bow to that bugbear, quite as submissively as Gesler
could have wished the Swiss to bow to his ow7n cap,
3*

30 HOME AS FOUND.

as to the cap of Rodolph's substitute. Men will havo
idols, and the Americans have merely set up them
selves."

" And yet, cousin Jack, you would be wretched
were you doomed to live under a system less free. I
fear you have the affectation of sometimes saying that
which you do not exactly feel."

CHAPTER III.

'Come, these are no times to think of dreams —
We'll talk of dreams hereafter."

SHAKSPEARE.

THE day succeeding that in which the conversation
just mentioned occurred, was one of great expecta
tion and delight in the Wigwam. Mrs. Hawker and
the Bloomfields were expected, and the morning passed
away rapidly, under the gay buoyancy of the feelings
that usually accompany such anticipations in a
country-house. The travellers were to leave town the
previous evening, and, though the distance was near
two hundred and thirty miles, they were engaged to
arrive by the usual dinner hour. In speed, the Ameri
cans, so long as they follow the great routes, are
unsurpassed; and even Sir George Templemore,
coming, as he did, from a country of MacAdamized
roads and excellent posting, expressed his surprise,
when given to understand that a journey of this
length, near a hundred miles of which were by land,
moreover, was to be performed in twenty-four hours,
the stops included.

" One particularly likes this rapid travelling," he
remarked, " when if is to bring us such friends as Mrs.
Hawker."

" And Mrs. Bloomfield," added Eve, quickly. " I

HOME AS FOUND. 31

est the credit of the American females on Mrs. Bloom-
field."

" More so, than on Mrs. Hawker, Miss Effingham ?"
" Not in all that is amiable, respectable, feminine,
and lady-like ; but certainly more so, in the way of
rnind. I knowT, Sir George Templemore, as a Euro
pean, what your opinion is of our sex in this country."
" Good heaven, my dear Miss Effingham ! — My
opinion of your sex, in America ! It is impossible for
any one to entertain a higher opinion of your country
women — as I hope to show — as, I trust, my respect
and admiration have always proved — nay, Powis, you,
as an American, will exonerate me from this want of

taste — judgment — feeling "

Paul laughed, but told the embarrassed and really
distressed baronet, that he should leave him in the very
excellent hands into which he had fallen.

" You see that bird, that is sailing so prettily above
the roofs of the village," said Eve, pointing with her
parasol in the direction she meant ; for the three were
walking together on the little lawn, in waiting for the
appearance of the expected guests ; " and I dare say
you are ornithologist enough to tell its vulgar name."
" You are in the humour to be severe this morning
— the bird is but a common swallow."

" One of which will not make a summer, as every
one knows. Our cosmopolitism is already forgotten,
and \vith it, I fear, our frankness."

" Since Powis has hoisted his national colours, I do
not feel as free on such subjects as formerly," returned
Sir George, smiling. " When I thought I had a secret
ally in him, I was not afraid to concede a little in such
things, but his avowal of his country has put me on
my guard. In no case, however, shall I admit my insen
sibility to the qualities of your countrywomen. Powis,
as a native, may take that liberty ; but, as for myself,
I shall insist they are, at least, the equals of any
females I know."

32 HOME AS FOUND.

" In naivete, prettiness, delicacy of appearance, sim
plicity, and sincerity "

" In sincerity ,.think you, dear Miss Effingham ?"

" In sincerity, above all things, dear Sir George
Templemore. Sincerity — nay, frankness is the last
quality I should think of denying them."

" But to return to Mrs. Bloomfield — she is clever,
exceedingly clever, I allow ; in what is her clever
ness to be distinguished from that of one of her sex,
on the other side of the ocean ?"

" In nothing, perhaps, did there exist no differences
in national characteristics. Naples and New-York are
in the same latitude, and yet, I think you will agree
•with me, that there is little resemblance in their popu
lations."

" I confess I do not understand the allusion — are
you quicker witted, Powis ?"

" I will not say that," answered Paul ; " but I think
I do comprehend Miss Effingham's meaning. You
have travelled enough to know, that, as a rule, there
is more aptitude in a southern, than in a northern peo
ple. They receive impressions more readily, and are
quicker in all their perceptions."

" I believe this to be true ; but, then, you will allow
that they are less constant, and have less perseve
rance r

" In that we are agreed, Sir George Templemore,"
resumed Eve, " though wre might differ as to the cause.
The inconstancy of which you speak, is more con
nected with moral than physical causes, perhaps, and
we, of this region, might claim an exemption from some
of them. But, Mrs. Bloomfield is to be distinguished
from her European rivals, by a frame so singularly
feminine as to appear fragile, a delicacy of exterior,
if hat, were it not for that illumined face of hers, might
indicate a general feebleness, a sensitiveness and quick
ness of intellect that amount almost to inspiration ; and,
yet all is balanced by a practical common sense, that

HOME AS FOUND. 33

renders her as safe a counsellor as she is a warm
friend. This latter quality causes yoju sometimes to
doubt her genius, it is so very homely and available.
Now it is in this, that I think the American woman,
when she does rise above mediocrity, is particularly
to be distinguished from the European. The latter,
as a genius, is almost always in the clouds, whereas,
Mrs. Bloomfield, in her highest flights, is either all
heart, or all good sense. The nation is practical, and
the practical qualities get to be imparted even to its
highest order of talents."

" The English women are thought to be less excita
ble, and not so much under the influence of sentiment-
alism, as some of their continental neighbours."

" And very justly — but "

" But, wThat, Miss Effingham — there is, in all this, a
slight return to the cosmopolitism, that reminds me of
our days of peril and adventure. Do not conceal a
thought, if you wish to preserve that character."

" Well, to be sincere, I shall say that your women
live under a system too sophisticated and factitious to
give fair play to common sense, at all times. What,
for instance, can be the habitual notions of one, who,
professing the doctrines of Christianity, is accustomed
to find money placed so very much in the ascendant,
as to see it daily exacted in payment for the very first
of the sacred offices of the church ? It would be as ra
tional to contend that a mirror which had been cracked
into radii, by a bullet, like those we have so often seen
in Paris, would reflect faithfully, as to suppose a mind
familiarized to such abuses would be sensitive on prac
tical and common sense things."

" But, my dear Miss Effingham, this is all habit."

" I know it is all habit, Sir George Templemore,
and a very bad habit it is. Even your devoutest cler
gymen get so accustomed to it, as not to see the capi
tal mistake they make. I do not say it is absolutely
sinful, where there is no compulsion ; but, I hope you

34 HOME AS FOUND.

agree with me, Mr. Powis, when I say I think a cler.
gym an ought to be so sensitive on such a subject, as
to refuse even the little offerings for baptisms, that it
is the practice of the wealthy of this country to make."

" I agree with you entirely, for it would denote a
more just perception of the nature of the office they
are performing ; and they who wish to give can al
ways make occasions."

" A hint might be taken from Franklin, who is said
to have desired his father to ask a blessing on the pork-
barrel, by way of condensation," put in John Effing-
ham, who joined them as he spoke, and who had heard
a part of the conversation. " In this instance, an ave
rage might be struck in the marriage fee, that should
embrace all future baptisms. But here comes neigh
bour Howei to favour us with his opinion. Do you
like the usages of the English church, as respects bap
tisms, Howel ?"

" Excellent, the best in the world, John Effingham."

" Mr. Howel is so true an Englishman," said Eve,
shaking hands cordially with their well-meaning neigh
bour, " that he would give a certificate in favour of
polygamy, if it had a British origin."

" And is not this a more natural sentiment for an
American than that which distrusts so much, merely
because it comes from the little island?" asked Sir
George, reproachfully.

" That is a question I shall leave Mr. Howel him
self to answer."

" Why, Sir George," observed the gentleman alluded
to, " I do not attribute my respect for your country,
in the least, to origin. I endeavour to keep myself
free from all sorts of prejudices. My admiration of
England arises from conviction, and I w^atch all her
movements with the utmost jealousy, in order to see
if I cannot find her tripping, though I feel bound to say
I have never yet detected her in a single error. What
a very different picture, France — I hope your govern-

HOME AS FOUND. 35

ess is not within hearing, Miss Eve ; it is not her fault ;
she was born a French woman, and we would not
wish to hurt her feelings — but what a different picture
France presents ! I have watched her narrowly too,
these forty years, I may say, and I have never yet
found her right; and this, you must allow, is a great
deal to be said by one who is thoroughly impartial."

" This is a terrible picture, indeed, Howe), to come
from an unprejudiced man," said John Effingham;
" and I make no doubt Sir George Templemore will
have a better opinion of himself for ever after — he for
a valiant lion, and you for a true prince. But yonder
is the ' exclusive extra,' which contains our party."

The elevated bit of lawn on which they were walk
ing commanded a view of the road that led into the
village, and the travelling vehicle engaged by Mrs.
Hawker and her friends, was now seen moving along
it at a rapid pace. Eve expressed her satisfaction,
and then all resumed their walk, as some minutes must
still elapse previously to the arrival.

" Exclusive extra !" repeated Sir George ; " that is
a peculiar phrase, and one that denotes any thing but
democracy."

" In any other part of the world a thing would be
sufficiently marked, by being * extra,' but here it requires
the addition of 'exclusive,' in order to give it the
4 tower stamp,' " said John Effingham, with a curl of
his handsome lip. " Any thing may be as exclusive as
it please, provided it bear the public impress. A stage
coach being intended for every body, why, the more
exclusive it is, the better. The next thing we shall
hear of will be exclusive steamboats, exclusive rail
roads, and both for the uses of the exclusive people."

Sir George now seriously asked an explanation of
the meaning of the term, when Mr. Howel informed
him that an « extra' in America meant a supernumerary
coach, to carry any excess of the ordinary number
of passengers ; whereas an ' exclusive extra' meant a
coach expressly engaged by a particular individual.

H03IE AS FOUND.

" The latter, then, is American posting," observed
Sir George.

" You have got the best idea of it that can be given,"
said Paul. " It is virtually posting with a coachman,
Instead of postillions, few persons in this country,
where so much of the greater distances is done by
steam, using their own travelling carriages. The
American * exclusive extra' is not only posting, but, in
many of the older parts of the country, it is posting
of a very good quality."

" I dare say, now, this is all wrong, if we only knew
it," said the simple-minded Mr. Howel. " There is
nothing exclusive in England, ha, Sir George ?'

Every body laughed except the person who put this
question, but the rattling of wheels and the tramping
of horses on the village bridge, announced the near
approach of the travellers. By the time the party had
reached the great door in front of the house, the car
riage was already in the grounds, and at the next mo
ment, Eve was in the arms of Mrs. Bloom field. It
wras apparent, at a glance, that more than the expected
number of guests was in the vehicle ; and as its contents
were slowly discharged, the spectators stood around
it, with curiosity, to observe who would appear.

The first person that descended, after the exit of
Mrs. Bloomfield, was Captain Truck, who, however,
instead of saluting his friends, turned assiduously to
the door he had just passed through, to assist Mrs.
Hawker to alight. Not until this office had been done,
did he even look for Eve ; for, so profound was the
worthy captain's admiration and respect for this vene
rable lady, that she actually had got to supplant our
heroine, in some measure, in his heart. Mr. Bloom-
field appeared next, and an exclamation of surprise
and pleasure proceeded from both Paul and the baro
net, as they caught a glimpse of the face of the last
of the travellers that got out.

" Ducie !" cried Sir George, " This is even better
than we expected."

HOME AS POUND. 3?

" Ducie !" added Paul, " you are several days before
the expected time, and in excellent company."

The explanation, however, was very simple. Cap
tain Ducie had found the facilities for rapid motion
much greater than he had expected, and he reached
Fort Plain, in the eastward cars, as the remainder of
the party arrived in the westward. Captain Truck
who had met Mrs. Hawker's party in the river boat,
had been intrusted with the duty of making the ar
rangements, and recognizing Captain Ducie, to their
mutual surprise, while engaged in this employment,
and ascertaining his destination, the latter was very
cordially received into the " exclusive extra."

Mr. Effingham welcomed all his guests with the
hospitality and kindness for which he was distinguished.
We are no great admirers of the pretension to peculiar
national virtues, having ascertained, to our own satis
faction, by tolerably extensive observation, that the
moral difference between men is of no great amount ;
but we are almost tempted to say, on this occasion,
that Mr. Effingham received his guests with American
hospitality ; for if there be one quality that this people
can claim to possess in a higher degree than thfat of
most other Christian nations, it is that of a simple, sin
cere, confiding hospitality. For Mrs. Hawker, in com
mon with all who knew her, the owner of the Wig
wam entertained a profound respect ; and though his
less active mind did not take as much pleasure as that
of his daughter, in the almost intuitive intelligence of
Mrs. Bloomfield, he also felt for this lady a very friend
ly regard. It gave him pleasure to see Eve surrounded
by persons of her own sex, of so high a tone of thought
and breeding ; a tone of thought and breeding, more
over, that was as far removed as possible from any
thing strained or artificial: and his welcomes were
cordial in proportion. Mr. Bloomfield was a quiet,
sensible, gentleman-like man, whom his wife fervently
loved, without making any parade of her attachment ;

VOL. II. 4

38 HOME AS FOUXD.

and he was also one who had the good sense to make
himself agreeable wherever he went. Captain Ducie,
who, Englishman-like, had required some urging to be
induced to present himself before the precise hour
named in his own letter, and who had seriously con
templated passing several days in a tavern, previously
to showing himself at the Wigwam, was agreeably dis
appointed at a reception, that would have been just as
frank and warm, had he come without any notice at
all : for the Effinghams knew that the usages which so
phistication and a crowded population perhaps render
necessary in older countries, were not needed in their
own ; and then the circumstance that their quondam
pursuer was so near a kinsman of Paul Powis', did not
fail to act essentially in his favour.

" We can offer but little, in these retired mountains,
to interest a traveller and a man of the \vorld, Captain
Ducie, " said Mr. Effingham, when he went to pay his
compliments more particularly, after the whole party
was in the house ; " but there is a common interest in
our past adventures to talk about, after all other topics
fail. When we met on the ocean, and you deprived us
so unexpectedly of our friend Powis, we did not know
that you had the better claim of affinity to his com
pany."

Captain Ducie coloured slightly, but he made his an
swer with a proper degree of courtesy and gratitude.

" It is very true," he added, " Powis and myself are
relatives, and I shall place all my claims to your hos
pitality to his account; for I feel that I have been
the unwilling cause of too much suffering to your party,
to bring with me any very pleasant recollections, not
withstanding your kindness in including me as a friend,
in the adventures of W7hich you speak."

"Dangers that are happily past, seldom bring very
unpleasant recollections, more especially when they
wer% connected with scenes of excitement. I under
stand, sir, that the unhappy young man, who was the

HOME AS FOUND. 39

principal cause of all that passed, anticipated the sen
tence of the law, by destroying himself."

" He was his own executioner, and the victim of a
silly weakness that, I should think, your state of society
was yet too young and simple to encourage. The idle
vanity of making an appearance, a vanity, by the way,
that seldom besets gentlemen, or the class to which it
may be thought more properly to belong, ruins hundreds
of young men in England, and this poor creature was
of the number. I never was more rejoiced than when
he quitted my ship, for the sight of so much weakness
sickened one of human nature. Miserable as his fate
proved to be, and pitiable as his condition really was,
while in my charge, his case has the alleviating cir
cumstance with me, of having made me acquainted
with those whom it might not otherwise have been
my good fortune to meet !"

This civil speech was properly acknowledged, and
Mr. Effingham addressed himself to Captain Truck, to
whom, in the hurry of the moment, he had not yet said
half that his feelings dictated.

" I am rejoiced to see you ander my roof, my wor
thy friend," taking the rough hand of the old seaman
between his own whiter and more delicate fingers, and
shaking it with cordiality, " for this is being under my
roof, while those town residences have less the air of
domestication and familiarity. You will spend many
of your holidays here, I trust ; and when we get a few
years older, we will begin to prattle about the marvels
we have seen in company."

The eye of Captain Truck glistened, and, as he return
ed the shake by another of twice the energy, and the
gentle pressure of Mr. Effingham by a squeeze like
that of a vice, he said in his honest off-hand manner —

" The happiest hour I ever knew was that in which
I discharged the pilot, the first time out, as a ship-mas
ter ; the next great event of my life, in the wray of hap
piness, was the moment I found myself on the deck oi
the Montauk, after we had given those greasy Arabs a

40 HOME AS FOUND.

hint that their room was better than their company; ano
I really think this very instant must be set down as the
third. I never knew, my dear sir, how much I truly loved
you and your daughter, until both were out of sight."

" That is so kind and gallant a speech, that it ought
not to be lost on the person most concerned. Eve, my
love, our worthy friend has just made a declaration
which will be a novelty to you, who have not been
much in the way of listening to speeches of this nature."

Mr. Effingham then acquainted his daughter with
what Captain Truck had just said.

" This is certainly the first declaration of the sort
I ever heard, and with the simplicity of an unprac
tised young woman, I here avow that the attachment
is reciprocal," said the smiling Eve. "If there is an
indiscretion in this hasty acknowledgement, it must be
ascribed to surprise, and to the suddenness with which
I have learned my power, for your parvenues are not
always perfectly regulated."

" I hope Mamselle V. A. V. is well," returned the
Captain, cordially shaking the hand the young lady had
given him, " and that she enjoys herself to her liking
in this outlandish country ?"

"Mademoiselle Viefville will return you her thanks
in person, at dinner ; and I believe she does not yet
regret la belle France unreasonably ; as I regret it my
self, in many particulars, it would be unjust not to per
mit a native of the country some liberty in that way."

" I perceive a strange face in the room — one of the
family, my dear young lady ?"

" Not a relative, but a very old friend. — Shall I have
the pleasure of introducing you, Captain ?"

" I hardly dared to ask it, for I know you must have
been overworked in this way, lately, but I confess I
should like an introduction; I have neither introduced,
nor been introduced since I left New-York, with the
exception of the case of Captain Ducie, whom I made
properly acquainted with Mrs. Hawker and her party,
as you may suppose. They know each other regu-

HOME AS FOUND. 41

arly now, and you are saved the trouble of going
through the ceremony yourself."

" And how is it with you and the Bloomfields ? Did
Mrs. Hawker name you to them properly?"

"That is the most extraordinary thing of the sort I
ever knew ! Not a word was said in the way of intro
duction, and yet I slid into an acquaintance with Mrs.
Bloomfield so easily, that I could not tell how it. was
done, if my life depended on it. But this very old
friend of yours, my dear young lady "

" Captain Truck, Mr. Howel ; Mr. Howel, Captain
Truck ;" said Eve, imitating the most approved man
ner of the introductory spirit of the day with admira
ble self-possession and gravity. " I am fortunate in
having it in my power to make two persons whom I
so much esteem acquainted."

" Captain Truck is the gentleman who commands
the Montauk 1" said Mr. Howel, glancing at Eve, as
much as to say, " am I right ?"

** The very same, and the brave seaman to whom
we are all indebted for the happiness of standing here
at this moment."

" You are to be envied, Captain Truck ; of all the
men in your calling, you are exactly the one I should
most wish to supplant. I understand you actually go
to England twice every year !"

" Three times, sir, when the winds permit. I have
even seen the old island four times, between January
and January."

" What a pleasure ! It must be the very acme of
navigation to sai] between America and England !"

" It is not unpleasant, sir, from April to November,
but the long nights, thick weather, and heavy winds
knock off a good deal of the satisfaction for the rest
of the year."

" But I speak of the country ; of old England itself;
not of the passages."

" Well, England has what I call a pretty fair coast.
4*

42 HOME AS FOUND.

It is high, and great attention is paid to the lights ; but
of what account is either coast or lights, if the wea
ther is so thick, you cannot see the end of your flying-
jib-boom !"

" Mr. Howel alludes more particularly to the coun
try, inland," said Eve ; " to the towns, the civilization,
and the other proofs of cultivation and refinement. To
the government, especially."

" In my judgment, sir, the government is much too
particular about tobacco, and some other trifling things
I could name. Then it restricts pennants to King's
ships, whereas, to my notion, my dear young lady, a
New- York packet is as worthy of wearing a pennant
as any vessel that floats. I mean, of course, ships of
the regular European lines, and not the Southern
traders."

" But these are merely spots on the sun, my good
sir," returned Mr. Howel ; " putting a few such trifles
out of the question, I think you will allow that Eng
land is the most delightful country in the world ?"

" To be frank with you, Mr. Howel, there is a good
deal of hang-dog weather, along in October, Novem
ber and December. I have knoxvn March any thing
but agreeable, and then April is just like a young girl
with one of your melancholy novels, now smiling, and
now blubbering."

" But the morals of the country, my dear sir ; the
moral features of England must be a source of never-
dying delight to a true philanthropist," resumed Mr.
Howel, as'Eve, who perceived that the discourse was
likely to be long, \vent to join the ladies. " An
Englishman has most reason to be proud of the moral
excellencies of his country 1"

" Why, to be frank with you, Mr. Howel, there are
some of the moral features of London, that are any
thing but very beautiful. If you could pass twenty-
four hours in the neighbourhood of St. Catharine's,
you would see sights that would throw Templeton

HOME AS TOUND. 43

/nto fits. The English are a handsome people, I
allow ; but their morality is none of the best-featured."

"Let us be seated, sir; I am afraid we are not
exactly agreed on our terms, and, in order that we
may continue this subject, I beg you will let me take
a seat next you, at table."

To this Captain Truck very cheerfully assented,
and then the two took chairs, continuing the discourse
very much in the blind and ambiguous manner in
which it had been commenced ; the one party insisting
on seeing every thing through the medium of an ima
gination that had got to be diseased on such subjects,
or with a species of monomania ; while the other
seemed obstinately determined to consider the entire
country as things had been presented to his limited
and peculiar experience, in the vicinity of the docks.

" We have had a very unexpected, and a very
agreeable attendant in Captain Truck," said Mrs.
Hawker, when Eve had placed herself by her side,
and respectfully taken one of her hands. " I really
think if I were to suffer shipwreck, or to run the haz
ard of captivity, I should choose to have both occur
in his good company."

" Mrs. Hawker makes so many conquests," observed
Mrs. Bloomfield, " that we are to think nothing of her
success with this mer-man; but what will you say,
Miss Effingham, when you learn that I am also in
favour, in the same high quarter. I shall think the
better of masters, and boatswains, and Trinculos and
Stephanos, as long as I live, for this specimen of their
craft."

"Not Trinculos and Stephanos, dear Mrs. Bloom-
field ; for, a r exception pres de Saturday-nights, and
sweet-hearts and wives, a more exemplary peison in
the way of libations does not exist than our excellent
Captain Truck. He is much too religious and moral
for so vulgar an excess as drinking."

"Religious!" exclaimed Mrs. Bloomfield, in sur~

__

4-1 HOME AS FOUND.

prise. " This is a merit to which I did not know he
possessed the smallest claims. One might imagine a
little superstition, and some short-lived repentances in
gales of wind ; but scarcely any thing as much like a
trade wind, as religion !"

" Then you do not know him ; for a more sincerely
devout man, though I acknowledge it is after a fashion
that is perhaps peculiar to the ocean, is not often met
with. At any rate, you found him attentive to our
sex?'

" The pink of politeness, and, not to embellish, there is
a manly deference about him, that is singularly agree
able to our frail vanity. This comes of his packet-
training, I suppose, and we may thank you for some
portion of his merit. His tongue never tires in your
praises, and did I not feel persuaded that your mind is
made up never to be the wife of any republican Ame
rican, I should fear this visit exceedingly. Notwith
standing the remark I made concerning my being in
favour, the affair lies between Mrs. Hawker and your
self. I know it is not your habit to trifle even on that
very popular subject with young ladies, matrimony ;
but this case forms so complete an exception to the
vulgar passion, that I trust you will overlook the indis
cretion. 'Our golden captain, for copper he is not,
protests that Mrs. Hawker is the most delightful old
lady he ever knew, and that Miss Eve Effingham is
the most delightful young lady he ever knew. Here,
then, each may see the ground she occupies, and play
her cards accordingly. I hope to be forgiven for
touching on a subject so delicate."

<k In the first place," said Eve, smiling, " I should
wish to hear Mrs. Hawker's reply."

" I have no more to say, than to express my per
fect gratitude," answered that lady, " to announce a
determination not to change my condition, on account
of extreme youth, and a disposition to abandon the
field to my younger, if not fairer, rival."

HOME AS FOUiVD 45

" Well, then," resumed Eve, anxious to change the
subject, for she saw that Paul was approaching their
group, " I believe it will be wisest in me to sus
pend a decision, circumstances leaving so much at
my disposal. Time must show what that decision
will be."

"Nay," said Mrs. Bloomfield, who saw no feeling
involved in the trifling, " this is unjustifiable coquetry,
and I feel bound to ascertain how the land lies. You
will remember I am the Captain's confidant, and you
know the fearful responsibility of a friend in an affair
of this sort ; that of a friend in the duello being insig
nificant in comparison. That I may have testimony
at need, Mr. Povvis shall be made acquainted with the
leading facts. Captain Truck is a devout admirer of
this young lady, sir, and I am endeavouring to disco
ver whether he ought to hang himself on her father's
lawn, this evening, as soon as the moon rises, or live
another week. In order to do this, I shall pursue the
categorical and inquisitorial method — and so defend
yourself Miss Effingham. Do you object to the coun
try of your admirer ?"

Eve, though inwardly vexed at the turn this plea
santry had taken, maintained a perfectly composed
manner, for she knew that Mrs. Bloomfield had too
much feminine propriety to say any thing improper, or
any thing that might seriously embarrass her.

" It would, indeed, be extraordinary, should I object
to a country which is not only my own, but which has
so long been that of my ancestors," she answered
steadily. " On this score, my knight has nothing to
fear."

" I rejoice to hear this," returned Mrs. Bloomfield,
glancing^her eyes, unconsciously to herself, however,
towards "Sir George Templemore, " and, Mr. Powis,
you, who I believe are a European, will learn humility
in the avowal. Do you object to your swain that he
is a seaman?"

46 HOME AS FOUND.

Eve blushed, notwithstanding a strong effort to ap
pear composed, and, for the first time since their ac
quaintance, she felt provoked with Mrs. Bloomfield.
She hesitated before she answered in the negative,
and this too in a way to give more meaning to her
reply, although nothing could be farther from her in
tentions.

" The happy man may then be an American and a
seaman ! Here is great encouragement. Do you
object to sixty V9

"In any other man I should certainly consider it a
blemish, as my own dear father is but fifty."

Mrs. Bloomfield was struck with the tremor in the
voice, and with the air of embarrassment, in one who
usually was so easy and collected ; and with feminine
sensitiveness she adroitly abandoned the subject, though
she often recurred to this stifled emotion in the course
of the day, and from that moment she became a silent
observer of Eve's deportment with all her father's
guests.

" This is hope enough for one day," she said, rising ;
" the profession and the flag must counterbalance the
years as best they may, and the Truck lives another
revolution of the sun ! Mrs. Hawker, we shall be late
at dinner, I see by that clock, unless we retire soon."

Both the ladies now went to their rooms ; Eve, who
was already dressed for dinner, remaining in the draw
ing-room. Paul still stood before her, and, like herself,
he seemed embarrassed.

" There are men who would be delighted to hear
even the little that has fallen from your lips in this tri
fling," he said, as soon as Mrs. Bloomfield was out of
hearing. " To be an American and a seaman, then,
are not serious defects in your eyes ?"

" Am I to be made responsible for Mrs. Bloomfield's
caprices and pleasantries ?"

" By no means ; but I do think you hold yourself
responsible for Miss Effingham's truth and sincerity

HOME AS rOUKfD. 47

I can conceive of your silence, when questioned too
far, but scarcely of any direct declaration, that shall
not possess both these high qualities."

Eve looked up gratefully, for she ^aw that profound
respect for her character dictated the remark; but
rising, she observed —

" This is making a little badinage about our honest,
lion-hearted, old captain, a very serious affair. And
now, to show you that I am conscious of, and thank
ful for, your own compliment, I shall place you on the
footing of a friend to both the parties, and request
you will take Captain Truck into your especial care,
while he remains here. My father and cousin are
both sincerely his friends, but their habits are not so
much those of their guests, as yours will probably be;
and to you, then, I commit him, writh a request that
he may miss his ship and the ocean as little as possi
ble."

<kl would I knew how to take this charge, Miss
Effingham ! — To be a seaman is not always a recom
mendation with the polished, intelligent, and refined."

" But when one is polished, intelligent, and refined,
to be a seaman is to add one other particular and use
ful branch of knowledge to those which are more fa
miliar. I feel certain Captain Truck will be in good
hands, and now I will go and do my devoirs to my
own especial charges, the ladies."

Eve bowed as she passed the young man, and she
left the room with as much haste as at all became
her. Paul stood motionless quite a minute after she
had vanished, nor did he awaken from his reverie, un
til aroused by an appeal from Captain Truck, to sustain
him, in some of his matter-of-fact opinions concerning
England, against the visionary and bookish notions of
Mr. Howel.

"Who is this Mr. Powis?" asked Mrs. Bloomfield
of Eve, when the latter appeared in her dressing-room,
with an unusual impatience of manner.

48 HOME AS FOUND.

" You know, my dear Mrs. Bloomfield, that he was
our fellow-passenger in the Montauk, and that he was
of infinite service to us, in escaping from the Arabs.'*

" All this I know, certainly ; but he is a European,
is he not?"

Eve scarcely ever felt more embarrassed than in
answering this simple question.

" I believe not ; at least, I think not ; we thought so
when we met him in Europe, and even until quite
lately ; but he has avowed himself a countryman of
our own, since his arrival at Templeton."

" Has he been here long?"

" We found him in the village on reaching home.
He was from Canada, and has been in waiting for
his cousin, Captain Ducie, who came with you."

"His cousin! — He has English cousins, then! Mr.
Ducie kept this to himself, with true English reserve.
Captain Truck whispered something of the latter's
having taken out one of his passengers, the Mr. Powis,
the hero of the rocks, but I did not know of his hav
ing found his way back to our — to his country. Is he
as agreeable as Sir George Templemore 1"

"Nay, Mrs. Bloomfield, I must leave you to judge
of that for yourself. I think them both agreeable men ;
but there is so much caprice in a woman's tastes, that
I decline thinking for others."

" He is a seaman, I believe," observed Mrs. Bloom-
field, with an abstracted manner — " he must have been,
to have manoeuvred and managed as I have been told
he did. Powis — Powis — that is not one of our names,
neither — I should think he must be from the south."

Here Eve's habitual truth and dignity of mind did
her good service, and prevented any further betrayal
of embarrassment.

"We do not kno\v his family," she steadily an
swered. " That he is a gentleman, we see ; but of his
origin and connections he never speaks."

" His profession would have given him the notions

HOME AS FOUND. 40

of a gentleman, for he was in the navy I have heard,
although I had thought it the British navy. I do not
know of any Powises in Philadelphia, or Baltimore, or
Richmond, or Charleston; he must surely be from
the interior."

Eve could scarcely condemn her friend for a curi
osity that had not a little tormented herself, though she
would gladly change the discourse.

" Mr. Powis would be much gratified, did he know
what a subject of interest he has suddenly become
with Mrs. Bloomfield," she said, smiling.

" I confess it all ; to be very sincere, I think him the
most distinguished young man, in air, appearance, and
expression of countenance, I ever saw. When this is
coupled with what I have heard of his gallantry and
coolness, my dear, I should not be woman to feel no
interest in him. 1 would give the world to know of
what State he is a native, if native, in truth, he be."

" For that we have his own word. He was born in
this country, and was educated in our own marine."

" And yet from the little that fell from him, in our
first short conversation, he struck me as being educated
above his profession."

"Mr. Powis has seen much as a traveller; when
we met him in Europe, it was in a circle particularly
qualified to improve both his mind and his manners."

" Europe ! Your acquaintance did not then com
mence, like that with Sir George Templemore, in the
packet?"

" Our acquaintance with neither, commenced in the
packet. My father had often seen both these gentle
men, during our residences in different parts of Eu
rope."

" And your father's daughter?"

" My father's daughter, too," said Eve, laughing.
" With Mr. Powis, in particular, we were acquainted
under circumstances that left a vivid recollection of

yOL. II. 5

50 HOME AS POUND.

his manliness and professional skill. He was of almost
as much service to us on one of the Swiss lakes, as
he has subsequently been on the ocean."

All this was news to Mrs. Bloomfield, and she looked
as if she thought the intelligence interesting. At this
moment the dinner-bell rang, and all the ladies descend
ed to the drawing-room. The gentlemen were already
assembled, and as Mr. Eflingham led Mrs. Hawker
to the table, Mrs. Bloomfield gaily took Eve by the
arm, protesting that she felt herself privileged, the first
day, to take a seat near the young mistress of the
Wigwam.

" Mr. Powis and Sir George Templemore will not
quarrel about the honour," she said, in a low voice, as
they proceeded towards the table.

" Indeed you are in error, Mrs. Bloomfield ; Sir
George Templemore is much better pleased with being
at liberty to sit next my cousin Grace."

" Can this be so !" returned the other, looking intently
at her young friend.

" Indeed it is so, and I am very glad to be able to
affirm it. How far Miss Van Cortlandt is pleased that
it is so, time must show : but the baronet betrays every
day, and all day, how much he is pleased with her."

" He is then a man of less taste, and judgment, and
intelligence, than I had thought him."

" Nay, dearest Mrs. Bloomfield, this is not necessa
rily true ; or, if true, need it be so openly said ?"

" Se non e vero, e ben t?*ovato."

HOME AS FOUND. 51

CHAPTER IV.

"Thine for a space are they —
Yet shall thou yield thy treasures up at last;

Thy gates shall yet give way,
Thy bolts shall fall, inexorable Past."

BRYANT

CAPTAIIV DUCIE had retired for the night, and was
sitting reading, when a low tap at the door roused him
from a brown study. He gave the necessary permis
sion, and the door opened.

"I hope, Ducie, you have not forgotten the secretary
I left among your effects," said Paul entering the room,
" and concerning which I wrote you when you were
still at Quebec."

Captain Ducie pointed to the case, which was stand
ing among his other luggage, on the floor of the room.

"Thank you for this care," said Paul, taking the
secretary under his arm, and retiring towards the door;
" it contains papers of much importance to myself, and
some that I have reason to think are of importance to
others."

" Stop, Powis — a word before you quit me. Is
Templemore de trop ?"

" Not at all ; I have a sincere regard for Temple-
more, and should be sorry to see him leave us."

" And yet I think it singular a man of his habits
should be rusticating among these hills, when I know
that he is expected to look at the Canadas, with a view
to report their actual condition at home."

" Is Sir George really entrusted with a commission
of that sort ?" inquired Paul, with interest.

44 Not with any positive commission, perhaps, for
none was necessary. Templemore is a rich fellow, and
has no need of appointments ; but, it is hoped and

52 HOME AS FOUND.

understood, that he will look at the provinces, and
report their condition to the government. I dare say
he will not be impeached for his negligence, though it
may occasion surprise."

"Good night, Ducie; Templemore prefers a wigwam
to your walled Quebec, and natives to colonists ; that
is all."

In a minute, Paul was at the door of John Effingham's
room, where he again tapped, and was again told to
enter.

" Ducie has not forgotten my request, and this is the
secretary that contains poor Mr. Monday's papers," he
remarked, as he laid his load on a toilet-table, speak
ing in a way to show that the visit wras expected.
" We have, indeed, neglected this duty too long, and
it is to be hoped no injustice, or wrong to any, will be
the consequence."

" Is that the package?" demanded John Effingham,
extending a hand to receive a bundle of papers that
Paul had taken from the secretary. " We will break the
seals this moment, and ascertain what ought to be done,
before we sleep."

" These are papers of my own, and very precious
are they," returned the young man, regarding them a
moment, with interest, before he laid them on the toi
let. " Here are the papers of Mr. Monday."

John Effingham received the package from his young
friend, placed the lights conveniently on the table, put
on his spectacles, and invited Paul to be seated. The
gentlemen were placed opposite each other, the duty
of breaking the seals, and first casting an eye at the
contents of the different documents, devolving, as a
matter of course, on the senior of the two, who, in
truth, had alone been entrusted with it.

" Here is something signed by poor Monday himself,
in the way of a general certificate," observed John
Effingham, who first read the paper, and then
handed it to Paul. It was, in form, an unsealed letter ;

HOME AS FOUND- 53

and it was addressed " to all whom it may concern."
The certificate itself was in the following words :

" I, John Monday, do declare and certify, that all the
accompanying letters and documents are genuine and
authentic. Jane Dowse, to whom and from whom,
are so many letters, was my late mother, she having
intermarried with Peter Dowse, the man so often
named, and who led her into acts for which I know she
has since been deeply repentant. In committing these
papers to me, my poor mother left me the sole judge
of the course I was to take, and I have put them in
this form, in order that they may yet do good, should
I be called suddenly away. All depends on discovering
who the person called Bright actually is, for he was
never known to my mother, by any other name. She
knows him to have been an Englishman, however, arid
thinks he was, or had been, an upper servant in a gen
tleman's family. JOHN MONDAY."

This paper was dated several years back, a sign that
the disposition to do right had existed some time in Mr.
Monday ; and all the letters and other papers had been
carefully preserved. The latter also appeared to be re
gularly numbered, a precaution that much aided the in
vestigations of the two gentlemen. The original letters
spoke for themselves, and the copies had been made
in a clear, strong, mercantile hand, and with the me
thod of one accustomed to business. In short, so far
as the contents of the different papers would allow,
nothing was wanting to render the whole distinct and
intelligible.

John Effingham read the paper No. 1, with delibe
ration, though not aloud ; arid when he had done, he
handed it to his young friend, coolly remarking —

" That is the production of a deliberate villain."

Paul glanced his eye over the document, which was
an original letter signed, « David Bright,' and addressed
to ' Mrs. Jane Dowse.' It was written with exceeding
art, made many professions of friendship, spoke of the

5*

54 HOME AS FOUND.

writer's knowledge of the woman's friends in England,
and of her first husband in particular, and freely pro
fessed the writer's desire to serve her, while it also con
tained several ambiguous allusions to certain means
of doing so, which should be revealed whenever the
person to whom the letter was addressed should dis
cover a willingness to embark in the undertaking.
This letter was dated Philadelphia, was addressed to
one in New-York, and it was old.

" This is, indeed, a rare specimen of villany," said
Paul, as he laid down the paper, " and has been writ
ten in some such spirit as that employed by the devil
when he tempted our common mother. I think I never
read a better specimen of low, wily, cunning."

" And, judging by all that we already know, it
would seem to have succeeded. In this letter you will
find the gentleman a little more explicit ; and but a
little ; though he is evidently encouraged by the inte
rest and curiosity betrayed by the woman in this copy
of the answer to his first epistle."

Paul read the letter just named, and then he laid
it down to wait for the next, which was still in the
hands of his companion.

" This is likely to prove a history of unlawful love,
and of its miserable consequences," said John Effing-
ham in his cool manner, as he handed the answers to
letter No. 1, and letter No. 2, to Paul. " The world is
full of such unfortunate adventures, and I should think
the parties English, by a hint or two you will find in
this very honest and conscientious communication.
Strongly artificial, social and political distinctions ren
der expedients of this nature more frequent, perhaps,
in Great Britain, than in any other country. Youth is
the season of the passions, and many a man in the
thoughtlessness of that period lays the foundation of
bitter regret in after life."

As John Effingham raised his eyes, in the act of ex
tending his hand towards his companion, he perceived

HOME AS FOUND. 55

that the fresh ruddy hue of his embrowned cheek deep
ened, until the colour diffused itself over the whole of
his fine brow. At first an unpleasant suspicion flashed
on John Effingham, and he admitted it with regret, for
Eve and her future happiness had got to be closely
associated, in his mind, with the character and conduct
of the young man; but when Paul took the papers,
steadily, and by an effort seemed to subdue all unplea
sant feelings, the calm dignity with which he read
them completely effaced the disagreeable distrust. It
was then John Effingham remembered that he had
once believed Paul himself might be the fruits of the
heartless indiscretion he condemned. Commiseration
and sympathy instantly took the place of the first im
pression, and he was so much absorbed with these feel
ings that he had not taken up the letter which was to
follow, when Paul laid down the paper he had last
been required to read.

" This does, indeed, sir, seem to foretell one of those
painful histories of unbridled passion, with the still more
painful consequences," said the young man with the
steadiness of one who was unconscious of having a
personal connexion with any events of a nature so
unpleasant. " Let us examine farther."

John Effingham felt emboldened by these encou
raging signs of unconcern, and he read the succeeding
letters aloud, so that they learned their contents simul
taneously. The next six or eight communications
betrayed nothing distinctly, beyond the fact that the
child which formed the subject of the whole corres
pondence, was to be received by Peter Dowse and his
wife, and to be retained as their own offspring, for the
consideration of a considerable sum, with on addition
al engagement to pay an annuity. It appeared by these
letters also, that the child, which was hypocritically
alluded to under the name of the * pet,' had been ac
tually transferred to the keeping of Jane Dowse, and
{hat several years passed, after this arrangement, be-

56 HOME AS FOUND.

fore the correspondence terminated. Most of th«
later letters referred to the payment of the annuity,
although they all contained cold inquiries after the
* pet,' and answers so vague and general, as sufficiently
to prove that the term was singularly misapplied. In
the whole, there were some thirty or forty letters, each
of which had been punctually answered, and their dates
covered a space of near twelve years. The perusal
of all these papers consumed more than an hour, and
when John Effingham laid his spectacles on the table,
the village clock had struck the hour of midnight.

" As yet," he observed, " we have learned little more
than the fact, that a child was made to take a false
character, without possessing any other clue to the
circumstances than is given in the names of the par
ties, all of whom are evidently obscure, and one of
the most material of whom, we are plainly told, must
have borne a fictitious name. Even poor Monday, in
possession of so much collateral testimony that we
want, could not have known what was the precise
injustice done, if any, or, certainly, with the intentions
he manifests, he w7ould not have left that important
particular in the dark."

" This is likely to prove a complicated affair," re
turned Paul, " and it is not very clear that we can be
of any immediate service. As you are probably fa
tigued, we may without impropriety defer the further
examination to another time."

To this John Effingham assented, and Paul, during
the short conversation that followed, brought the secre
tary from the toilet to the table, along with the bundle
of important papers that belonged to himself, to which
he had alluded, and busied himself in replacing the
whole in the drawer from which they had been taken.

" All the formalities about the seals, that we observed
when poor Monday gave us the packet, would seem
to be unnecessary," he remarked, while thus occupied,
" and it will probably be sufficient if I leave the secre
tary in your room, and keep the keys myself."

HOME AS FOUND. . 57

" One never knows," returned John Effingham, with
ihe greater caution of experience and age. "We
have not read all the papers, and there are wax and
lights before you ; each has his watch and seal, and it
will be the work of a minute only, to replace every
thing as we left the package, originally. When this
is done, you may leave the secretary, or remove it, at
your own pleasure."

" I will leave it ; for, though it contains so much
that I prize, and which is really of great importance
to myself, it contains nothing for which I shall have
immediate occasion."

" In that case, it were better that I place the pack
age in which we have a common interest in an ar-
moire, or in my secretary, and that you keep your
precious effects more immediately under your own
eye."

" It is immaterial, unless the case will inconve
nience you, for I do not know that I am not happier
when it is out of my sight, so long as I feel certain of
its security, than when it is constantly before my eyes."

Paul said this with a forced smile, and there
was a sadness in his countenance that excited the
sympathy of his companion. The latter, however,
merely bowed his assent, and the papers were re
placed, and the secretary was locked and deposited
in an armoire, in silence. Paul was then about to wish
the other good night, when John Effingham seized his
hand, and by a gentle effort induced him to resume
his seat. An embarrassing, but short pause succeeded,
when the latter spoke.

" We have suffered enough in company, and have
seen each other in situations of sufficient trial to be
friends," he said. ** I should feel mortified, did I believe
you could think me influenced by an improper curi
osity, in wishing to share more of your confidence
than you are perhaps willing to bestow ; I trust
you will attribute to its right motive the liberty I am

58 HOME AS FOUND.

now taking. Age makes some difference between us
and the sincere and strong interest I feel in your wel
fare, ought to give me a small claim not to be treated
as a total stranger. So jealous and watchful has this
interest been, I might with great truth call it affection,
that I have discovered you are not situated exactly as
other men in your condition of life are situated, and I
feel persuaded that the sympathy, perhaps the advice,
of one so many years older than yourself, might be
useful. You have already said so much to me, on the
subject of your personal situation, that I almost feel a
right to ask for more."

John Effingham uttered this in his mildest and most
winning manner; and few men could carry with them,
on such an occasion, more of persuasion in their voices
and looks. Paul's features worked, and it was evident
to his companion that he was moved, while, at the same
time, he was not displeased.

" I am grateful, deeply grateful, sir, for this interest
in my happiness," Paul answered, " arid if I knew the
particular points on which you feel any curiosity,
there is nothing that I can desire to conceal. Have
the further kindness to question me, Mr. Effingham,
that I need not touch on things you do not care to
hear."

u All that really concerns your welfare, would have
interest with me. You have been the agent of res
cuing not only myself, but those whom I most love,
from a fate worse than death ; and, a childless bach
elor myself, I have more than once thought of attempt
ing to supply the places of those natural friends that I
fear you have lost. Your parents "

" Are both dead. I never knew either," said Paul,
who spoke huskily, " and will most cheerfully accept
your generous offer, if you will allow me to attach
to it a single condition."

" Beggars must not be choosers," returned John
Effingham, " and if you will allow me to feel this inte-

r

HOME AS FOUND. 59

rest in you, and occasionally to share in the confidence
of a father ; I shall not insist on any unreasonable
terms. What is your condition ?"

" That the word money may be struck out of our
vocabulary, and that you leave your will unaltered.
Were the world to be examined, you could not find a
worthier or a lovelier heiress, than the one you have
already selected, and whom Providence itself has
given you. Compared with yourself, I am not rich ;
but I have a gentleman's income, and as I shall pro
bably never marry, it will suffice for all my wants."

John Effingham was more pleased than he cared to
express with this frankness, and with the secret sym
pathy that had existed between them ; but he smiled
at the injunction ; for, with Eve's knowledge, and her
father's entire approbation, he had actually made a
codicil to his will, in which their young protector
was left one half of his large fortune.

" The will may remain untouched, if you desire it,"
he answered, evasively, " and that condition is disposed
of. I am glad to learn so directly from yourself, what
your manner of living and the reports of others had
prepared me to hear, that you are independent. This
fact, alone, will place us solely on our mutual esteem,
and render the friendship that I hope is now brought
within a covenant, if not now first established, more
equal and frank. You have seen much of the world,
Powis, for your years and profession ?"

" It is usual to think that men of my profession see
much of the world, as a consequence of their pur
suits ; though I agree with you, sir, that this is seeing
the world only in a very limited circle. It is now
several years since circumstances, I might almost say
the imperative order of one whom I was bound to obey,
induced me to resign, and since that time I have done
little else but travel. Owing to certain adventitious
causes, I have enjoyed an access to European society
that few of our countrymen possess, and I hope the

60 HOME AS FOUND.

advantage lw not been entirely thrown away. It was
as a traveller on the continent of Europe, that I had
the pleasure of first meeting with Mr. and Miss Effing-
ham. I was much abroad, even as a child, and owe
some little skill in foreign languages to that circum
stance."

" So my cousin has informed me. You have set the
question of country at rest, by declaring that you are
an American, and yet I find you have English rela
tives. Captain Ducie, I believe, is a kinsman V9

" He is ; we are sister's children, though our friend
ship has not always been such as the connexion would
infer. When Ducie and myself met at sea, there was
an awkwardness, if not a coolness, in the interview,
that, coupled with my sudden return to England, I fear
did not make the most favourable impression, on those
who witnessed what passed."

" We had confidence in your principles," said John
Effingham, with a frank simplicity, " and, though the
first surmises were not pleasant, perhaps, a little re
flection told us that there was no just ground for sus
picion,"

" Ducie is a fine, manly fellow, and has a seaman's
generosity and sincerity. I had last parted from him
on the field, where we met as enemies ; and the cir
cumstance rendered the unexpected meeting awkward.
Our wounds no longer smarted, it is true; but, perhaps,
we both felt shame and sorrow that they had ever
been inflicted."

" It should be a very serious quarrel that could arm
sister's children against each other," said John Effing-
ham, gravely.

" I admit as much. But, at that time, Captain Ducie
was not disposed to admit the consanguinity, and the
offence grew out of an intemperate resentment of some
imputations on my birth ; between two military men,
the issue could scarcely be avoided. Ducie chal
lenged, and I was not then in the humour to balk him.

HOME AS FOUND. 61

A couple of flesh-wounds happily terminated the affair.
But an interval of three years had enabled my enemy
to discover that he had not done me justice ; that I had
been causelessly provoked to the quarrel, and that we
ought to be firm friends. The generous desire to make
suitable expiation, urged him to seize the first occasion
of corning to America that offered; and when or
dered to chase the Montauk, by a telegraphic commu
nication from London, he was hourly expecting to sail
for our seas, \vhere he wished to come, expressly that
we might meet. You will judge, therefore, how happy
he was to find me unexpectedly in the vessel that con
tained his principal object of pursuit, thus killing, as it
might be, two birds with one stone."

" And did he carry you away with him, with any
•uch murderous intention?" demanded John Effingham,
smiling.

" By no means ; nothing could be more amicable
than Ducie and myself got to be, when we had been
a few hours together in his cabin. As often happens,
when there have been violent antipathies and unreason
able prejudices, a nearer view of each other's charac
ter and motives removed every obstacle; and long be
fore we reached England, two warmer friends could not
be found, or a more frank intercourse between rela
tives could not be desired. You are aware, sir, that
our English cousins do not often view their cis-atlantic
relatives with the most lenient eyes."

" This is but too true," said John Effingham proudly,
though his lip quivered as he spoke, " and it is, in a
great measure, the fault of that miserable mental bond
age which has left this country, after sixty years of
nominal independence, so much at the mercy of a hos
tile opinion. It is necessary that \ve respect ourselves
in order that others respect us."

" I agree with you, sir, entirely. In my case, how
ever, previous injustice disposed my relatives to re
ceive me better, perhaps, than might otherwise have

VOL. II. 6

62 HOME AS FOUND.

been the case. I had little to ask in the way of foi
tune, and feeling no disposition to raise a question that
might disturb the peerage of the Duties, I became a
favourite."

"A peerage ! — Both your parents, then, were English?"

" Neither, I believe ; but the connection between
the two countries was so close, that it can occasion
no surprise a right of this nature should have passed
into the colonies. My mother's mother became the
heiress of one of those ancient baronies, that pass to
the heirs-general, and, in consequence of the deaths
of two brothers, these rights, which however were
never actually possessed by any of the previous gene
ration, centered in my mother and my aunt. The for
mer being dead, as was contended, without issue "

"You forget yourself!"

" Lawful issue," added Paul, reddening to the tenr»
pies, " I should have added — Mrs. Ducie, who was
married to the younger son of an English nobleman;
claimed and obtained the rank. My pretension would
have left the peerage in abeyance, and I probably owe
some little of the opposition I found, to that circum
stance. But, after Ducie's generous conduct, I could
not hesitate about joining in the application to the
crown, that, by its decision, the abeyance might be de
termined in favour of the person who was in posses
sion ; and Lady Dunluce is now quietly confirmed in
her claim."

" There are many young men in this country, who
would cling to the hopes of a British peerage with
greater tenacity !"

" It is probable there are ; but my self-denial is not
of a very high order, for, it could scarcely be expected
the English ministers would consent to give the rank
to a foreigner who did not hesitate about avowing his
principles and national feelings. I shall not say I did
not covet this peerage, for it would be supererogatory
but I am born an American, and will die an American

HOME AS FOUND. 03

and an American who swaggers about such a claim,
is like the daw among the peacocks. The less that is
said about it, the better."

" You are fortunate to have escaped the journals,
which, most probably, would have begraced you, by
elevating you at once to the rank of a duke."

" Instead of which, I had no other station than that
of a dog in the manger. If it makes my aunt happy
to be called Lady Dunluce, I am sure she is welcome
to the privilege; and when Ducie succeeds her, as will
one day be the case, an excellent fellow will be a peer
of England. Voila tout! You are the only country
man, sir, to whom I have ever spoken of the circum
stance, and with you I trust it will remain a secret."

" What ! am I precluded from mentioning the facts in
my own family? I am not the only sincere, the only
warm friend, you have in this house, Powis."

" In that respect, I leave you to act your pleasure,
my dear sir. If Mr. Effingham feel sufficient interest
in my fortunes, to wish to hear what I have told you,
let there be no silly mysleries, — or — or Mademoiselle
Viefville "

1(1 Or Nanny Sidley, or Annette," interrupted John
Effingham, with a kind smile. " Well, trust to me for
that ; but, before wre separate for the night, I wish to
ascertain beyond question one other fact, although the
circumstances you have stated scarce leave a doubt of
the reply."

" I understand you, sir, and did not intend to leave
you in any uncertainty on that important particular. If
there can be a feeling, more painful than all others, with
a man of any pride, it is to distrust the purity of his
mother. Mine was beyond reproach, thank God, and
so it was most clearly established, or I could certainly
have had no legal claim to the peerage."

" Or your fortune — " added John Effingham., draw
ing a long breath, like one suddenly relieved from an
unpleasant suspicion.

64 HOME AS FOUND.

" My fortune comes from neither parent, but
one of those generous dispositions, or caprices, if yoa
will, that sometimes induce men to ad-opt those who
are alien to their blood. My guardian adopted me,
took me abroad with him, placed me, quite young, in
the navy, and dying, he finally left me all he possessed.
As he was a bachelor, with no near relative, and had
been the artisan of his own fortune, I could have no
hesitation about accepting the gift he so liberally be
queathed. It was coupled with the condition that I
should retire from the service, travel for five years,
return home, and marry. There is no silly forfeiture
exacted in either case, but such is the general course
solemnly advised by a man who showed himself my
true friend for so many years."

" I envy him the opportunity he enjoyed of serving
you. I hope he would have approved of your nationa
pride, for I believe we must put that at the bottom of
your disinterestedness, in the affair of the peerage."

" He wrould, indeed, although he never knew any
thing of the claim which arose out of the death of the
two lords who preceded my aunt, and who were the
brothers of my grandmother. My guardian \vas in all
respects a man, and, in nothing more, than in a manly
national pride. While abroad a decoration \vas offered
him, and he declined it with the character and dignity
of one who felt that distinctions which his country re
pudiated, every gentleman belonging to that country
ought to reject ; and yet he did it with a respectful
gratitude for the compliment, that was due to the go
vernment from which the offer came."

" I almost envy that man," said John Effingham,
with warmth. " To have appreciated you, Powis, was
a mark of a high judgment ; but it seems he properly
appreciated himself, his country, and human nature'."

"And yet he was little appreciated in his turn. That
man passed years in one of our largest towns, of no
more apparent account among its population than anj

HOME AS FOUND. 65

one of its commoner spirits, and of not half as much
as one of its bustling brokers, or jobbers."

" In that there is nothing surprising. The class of
the chosen few is too small every where, to be very
numerous at any given point, in a scattered population
like that of America. The broker will as naturally
appreciate the broker, as the dog appreciates the dog,
or the wolf the wolf. Least of all is the manliness
you have named, likely to be valued among a people
who have been put into men's clothes before they are
out of leading-strings. I am older than you, my dear
Paul," it was the first time John Effingham ever
used so familiar an appellation, and the young man
thought it sounded kindly — " I am older than you, my
dear Paul, and will venture to tell you an important
fact that may hereafter lessen some of your own mor
tifications. In most nations there is a high standard
to which man at least affects to look ; and acts are ex
tolled and seemingly appreciated, for their naked
merits. Little of this exists in America, where no
man is mush praised for himself, but for the purposes
of party, or to feed national vanity. In the country
in which, of all others, political opinion ought to be the
freest, it is the most persecuted, and the community-
character of the nation induces every man to think he
has a right of property in all its fame. England ex
hibits a great deal of this weakness and injustice, which,
it is to be feared, is a vicious fruit of liberty ; for it is
certain that the sacred nature of opinion is most ap
preciated in those countries in which it has the least
efficiency. We are constantly deriding those govern
ments which fetter opinion, and yet I know of no na
tion in which the expression of opinion is so certain to
attract persecution and hostility as our own, though it
may be, and is, in one sense, free."

'* This arises from its potency. Men quarrel about
opinion here,, because opinion rules. It is but one mode
of struggling for power. But to return to my guar-
6*

66 HOME AS FOUND.

dian ; he was a man to think and act for himself, and
as far from the magazine and newspaper existence that
most Americans, in a moral sense, pass, as any man
could be."

" It is indeed a newspaper and magazine existence,"
said John Effingham, smiling at Paul's terms, " to
know life only through such mediums ! It is as bad as
the condition of those English who form their notions
of society from novels written by men and women
who have no access to it, and from the records of the
court journal. I thank you sincerely, Mr. Powis, for
this confidence, which has not been idly solicited on
my part, and which shall not be abused. At no dis
tant day we will break the seals again, and renew
our investigations into this affair of the unfortunate
Monday, which is not yet, certainly, very promising
in the way of revelations."

The gentlemen shook hands cordially, and Paul,
lighted by his companion, withdrew. When the young
man \vas at the door of his own room, he turned, and
saw John Effingham following him with his eye. The
latter then renewed the good night, with one of those
winning smiles that rendered his face so brilliantly
handsome, and each retired.

CHAPTER V.

1 Item, a capon, 2s. 2d.
Item, sauce, 4d.
Item, sack, two gallons, 5s. 8d.
Item, bread, a half-penny."

SHAKSPEARE.

THE next day John Effingham made no allusion to
the conversation of the previous night, though the
squeeze of the hand he gave Paul, when they met, was

HOME AS FOUND. 67

an assurance that nothing was forgotten. As he had
a secret pleasure in obeying any injunction of Eve's,
the young man himself sought Captain Truck, even
before they had breakfasted, and, as he had made an
acquaintance with ' the commodore,' on the lake, pre
viously to the arrival of the Effinghams, that worthy
was summoned, and regularly introduced to the honest
ship-master. The meeting between these two distin
guished men was grave, ceremonious and dignified,
each probably feeling that he was temporarily the
guardian of a particular portion of an element that
was equally dear to both. After a few minutes passed,
as it might be, in the preliminary points of etiquette,
a better feeling and more confidence was established,
and it was soon settled that they should fish in com
pany, the rest of the day ; Paul promising to row the
ladies out on the lake, and to join them in the course
of the afternoon.

As the party quitted the breakfast-table, Eve took
an occasion to thank the young man for his attention
to their common friend, who, it was reported, had
taken his morning's repast at an early hour, and was
already on the lake, the day by this time having ad
vanced w'ithin two hours of noon.

"I have dared even to exceed your instructions,
Miss Effingham," said Paul, " for I have promised the
Captain to endeavour to persuade you, and as many
of the ladies as possible, to trust yourselves to my sea
manship, and to submit to be rowed out to the spot
where we shall find him and his friend the commodore
riding at anchor."

" An engagement that my influence shall be used to
see fulfilled. Mrs. Bloomfield has already expressed
a desire to go on the Otsego-Water, and I make no
doubt I shall find other companions. Once more let
me thank you for this little attention, for I too well
know your tastes, not to understand that you might
find a more agreeable ward."

68 HOME AS FOUND.

" Upon my word, I feel a sincere regard for our old
Captain, and could often wish for no better companion*
Were he, however, as disagreeable as I find him, in
truth, pleasant and frank, your wishes would conceal
all his faults."

" You have learned, Mr. Powis, that small atten
tions are as much remembered as important services,
and after having saved our lives, wish to prove that
you can discharge hs petits devoirs socials, as well as
perform great deeds. I trust you will persuade Sir
George Templemore to be of our party, and at four
we shall be ready to accompany you ; until then I am
contracted to a gossip with Mrs. Bloomfield in her
dressing-room."

We shall now leave the party on the land, and fol
low those who have already taken boat, or the fisher
men. The beginning of the intercourse between the
salt-water navigator and his fresh-water companion
was again a little constrained and critical. Their pro
fessional terms agreed as ill as possible, for when the
Captain used the expression ' ship the oars,' the com
modore understood just the reverse of what it had been
intended to express ; and, once, when he told his com
panion to * give way,' the latter took the hint so literally
as actually to cease rowing. All these professional
niceties induced the worthy ship-master to undervalue
his companion, who, in the main, was very skilful in
his particular pursuit, though it was a skill that he
exerted after the fashions of his own lake, and not
after the fashions of the ocean. Owing to several
contre-tems of this nature, by the time they reached
the fishing-ground the Captain began to entertain a
feeling for the commodore, that ill comported with the
deference due to his titular rank.

" I have come out with you, commodore," said Cap
tain Truck, when they had got to their station, and
laying a peculiar emphasis on the appellation he used,
" in order to enjoy myself, and you will confer an

HOME AS FOUND. 69

especial favour on me by not using such phrases as
• cable-rope,' ' casting anchor,' and « titivating.' As
for the two first, no seaman ever uses them ; and I
never heard such a word on board a sffip, as the last.
D e, sir, if I believe it is to be found in the dic
tionary, even."

" You amaze me, sir ! < Casting anchor,' and * cable-
rope' are both Bible phrases, and they must be right."

" That follows by no means, commodore, as I have
some reason to know ; for my father having been a.
parson, and I being a seaman, we may be said to have
the whole subject, as it were, in the family. St. Paul —
you have heard of such a man as St. Paul, commo
dore ?— "

"I know him almost by heart, Captain Truck; but
St. Peter and St. Andrew were the men most after my
heart. Ours is an ancient calling, sir, and in those two
instances you see to what a fisherman can rise. I do
not remember to have ever heard of a sea-captain who
was converted into a saint."

" Ay, ay, there is always too much to do on board
ship to have time to be much more than a beginner in
religion. There was my mate, v'y'ge before last, Tom
Leach, who is now master of a ship of his own, had
he been brought up to it properly, he would have made
as conscientious a parson as did his grandfather be
fore him. Such a man would have been a seaman, as
well as a parson. I have little to say against St. Peter
or St. Andrew, but, in my judgment, they were none
tne better saints for having been fishermen ; and, if the
truth were known, I dare say they were at the bottom
of introducing such lubberly phrases into the Bible, as
casting-anchor,' and i cable-rope."

" Pray, sir," asked the commodore, with dignity,
" what are you in the practice of saying, when you
speak of such matters ; for, to be frank with you, we
always use these terms on these lakes."

" Ay, ay, there is a fresh-water smell about them.

70 HOME AS FOUND.

We say * anchor,' or « let go the anchor,' or * dropped
the anchor,' or some such reasonable expression, and
not * cast anchor,' as if a bit of iron, weighing two or
three tons, is to be jerked about like a stone big
enough to kill a bird with. As for the ' cable-rope,' as
you call it, we say the « cable,' or « the chain,' or ' the
ground tackle,' according to reason and circum
stances. You never hear a real « salt' flourishing his
4 cable-ropes,' and his * casting-anchors,' which are
altogether too sentimental and particular for his man
ner of speaking. As for ' ropes,' I suppose you have
not got to be a commodore, and need being told how
many there are in a ship."

" I do not pretend to have counted them, but I have
seen a ship, sir, and one under full sail, too, and I
know there were as many ropes about her as there
are pines on the Vision."

" Are there more than seven of these trees on your
mountain ? for that is just the number of ropes in a
merchant-man ; though a man-of-war's-man counts
one or two more."

" You astonish me, sir ! But seven ropes in a ship ?
— I should have said there are seven hundred !"

A I dare say, I dare say ; that is just the way in
which a landsman pretends to criticise a vessel. As
for the ropes, I will now give you their names, and
then you can lay athwart hawse of these canoe
gentry, by the hour, and teach them rigging and
modesty, both at the same time. In the first place,"
continued the captain, jerking at his line, and then
beginning to count on his fingers — "There is the
' man-rope ;' then come the ' bucket-rope,' the « tiller-
rope,' the * bolt-rope,' the ' foot-rope,' the * top-rope,'
and the « limber-rope.' I have followed the seas, now,
more than half a century, and never yet heard of a
* cable-rope,' from any one who could hand, reef, and
steer."

" Well, sir, every man to his trade," said the com-

HOME AS FOUND. 71

modore, who just then pulled in a fine pickerel, which
was the third he had taken, while his companion
rejoiced in no more than a few fruitless bites. " You
?re more expert in ropes than in lines, it would
seem. I shall not deny your experience and know
ledge; but in the way of fishing, you will at least
allow that the sea is no great school. I dare say,
now, if you were to hook the « sogdollager,' we should
nave you jumping into the lake to get rid of him.
Quite probably, sir, you never before heard of that
celebrated fish ?"

Notwithstanding the many excellent qualities of
Captain Truck, he had a weakness that is rather
peculiar to a class of men, who, having seen so much
of this earth, are unwilling to admit they have not seen
it all. The little brush in which he was now engaged
with the commodore, he conceived due to his own dig
nity, and his motive was duly to impress his compa
nion with his superiority, which being fairly ad
mitted, he would have been ready enough to ac
knowledge that the other understood pike-fishing much
better than himself. But it was quite too early in the
discussion to make any such avowal, and the super
cilious remark of the commodore's putting him on his
mettle, he was ready to affirm that he had eaten ' sog-
dollagers' for breakfast, a month at a time, had it
been necessary.

" Pooh ! pooh ! man," returned the captain, with an
air of cool indifference, " you do not surely fancy that
you have any thing in a lake like this, that is not to be
found in the ocean ! If you were to see a whale's
flukes thrashing your puddle, every cruiser among you
would run for a port; and as for * sogdollagers,' we
think little of them in salt-water; the flying-fish, or
even the dry dolphin, being much the best eating."

" Sir," said the commodore, with some heat, and a
great deal of emphasis, " there is but one l sogdollager'
in the world, and he is in this lake. No man has ever

72 HOME AS FOUND.

seen him, but my predecessor, the * Admiral,' and my
self."

" Bah !" ejaculated the captain, " they are as plenty
as soft clams, in the Mediterranean, and the Egyptians
use them as a pan-fish. In the East, they catch them
to bait with, for hallibut, and other middling sized
creatures, that are particular about their diet. . It is a
good fish, I own, as is seen in this very circumstance."

" Sir," repeated the commodore, flourishing his hand,
and waxing warm with earnestness, " there is but
one ' sogdollager' in the universe, and that is in Lake
Otsego. A ' sogdollager' is a salmon trout, and not a
species ; a sort of father to all the salmon trout in this
part of the world ; a scaly patriarch."

'•I make no doubt your 'sogdollager'* is scaly enough;
but what is the use in wasting words about such a
trifle ? A whale is the only fish fit to occupy a gen
tleman's thoughts. As long as I have been at sea, I
have never witnessed the taking of more than three
whales."

This allusion happily preserved the peace ; for, if
there were any thing in the world for which the com
modore entertained a profound, but obscure reverence,
it was for a whale. He even thought better of a man
for having actually seen one, gambolling in the free
dom of the ocean ; and his mind became suddenly
oppressed by the glory of a mariner, \vho had passed
his life among such gigantic animals. Shoving back
his cap, the old man gazed steadily at the captain a
minute, and all his displeasure about the * sogdollagers"
vanished, though, in his inmost mind, he set down all
that the other had told him on that particular subject,
as so many parts of a regular ' fish story."

" Captain Truck," he said, with solemnity, " I ac
knowledge myself to be but an ignorant and inexpe
rienced man, one who has passed his life on this lake,
which, broad and beautiful as it is, must seem a pond
in the eyes of a seaman like yourself, who have pass
ed your days on the Atlantic "

HOME AS FOUND. 73

" Atlantic !" interrupted the captain contemptuously,
" I should have but a poor opinion of myself, had 1
seen nothing but the Atlantic ! Indeed, I never can
believe I am at sea at all, on the Atlantic, the pass
ages between New-York and Portsmouth being little
more than so much canalling along a tow-path. If
you wish to say any thing about oceans, talk of the
Pacific, or of the Great South Sea, where a man may
run a month with a fair wind, and hardly go from
island to island. Indeed, that is an ocean in which
there is a manufactory of islands, for they turn them
off in lots to supply the market, and of a size to suit
customers."

" A manufactory of islands !" repeated the commo
dore, who began to entertain an awe of his companion,
that he never expected to feel for any human being
on Lake Otsego ; " are you certain, sir, there is no
mistake in this 1"

"None in the least; not only islands, but whole
Archipelagos are made annually, by the sea insects in
that quarter of the world ; but, then, you are not to
form your notions of an insect in such an ocean, by
the insects you see in such a bit of water as this."

"As big as our pickerel, or salmon trout, I dare
say?" returned the commodore, in the simplicity of his
heart, for by this time his local and exclusive conceit
was thoroughly humbled, and he was almost ready to
believe any thing.

"I say nothing of their size, for it is to their num
bers and industry that I principally allude now. A soli
tary shark, I dare say, would set your whole Lake in
commotion?"

" I think we might manage a shark, sir. I once saw
one of those animals, and I do really believe the sog-
dollager would outweigh him. I do think we might
manage a shark, sir."

" Ay, you mean an in-shore, hiffh-latitude fellow.

Vor, II. 7

74 HOME AS FOUND.

But what would you say to a shark as long as one of
those pines on the mountain?"

" Such a monster would take in a man, whole ?"

" A man ! He would take in a platoon, Indian file.
I dare say one of those pines, nowr, may be thirty or
forty feet high !"

A gleam of intelligence and of exultation shot across
the weather-beaten face of the old fisherman, for he
detected a weak spot in the other's knowledge. The
worthy Captain, with that species of exclusiveness
which accompanies excellence in any one thing, was
quite ignorant of most matters that pertain to the
land. That there should be a tree, so far inland, that
was larger than his main-yard, he did not think proba
ble, although that yard itself wras made of part of a
tree; and, in the laudable intention of duly impressing
his companion with the superiority of a real seaman
over a mere fresh-water navigator, he had inadvert
ently laid bare a weak spot in his estimate of heights
and distances, that the Commodore seized upon, with
some such avidity as the pike seizes the hook. This
accidental mistake alone saved the latter from an ab
ject submission, for the cool superiority of the Captain
had so far deprived him of his conceit, that he was al
most ready to acknowledge himself no better than a
dog, when he caught a glimpse of light through this
opening.

" There is not a pine, that can be called of age, on
all the mountain, which is riot more than a hundre3
feet high, and many are nearer two," he cried in ex
ultation, flourishing his hand. " The sea may have its
big monsters, Captain, but our hills have their big trees*
Did you ever see a shark of half that length ?"

Now, Captain Truck was a man of truth, although
so much given to occasional humorous violations of
its laws, and, withal, a little disposed to dwell upon the
marvels of the great deep, in the spirit of exaggeration,
and he could not, in conscience, affirm any thing so ex-

HOME AS FOUND. 75

travagant as this. He was accordingly obliged to ad
mit his mistake, and from this moment, the conversa
tion was carried on with a greater regard to equality.
They talked, as they fished, of politics, religion, philo
sophy, human nature, the useful arts, abolition, and
most other subjects that would be likely to interest a
couple of Americans who had nothing to do but to
twitch, from time to time, at two lines dangling in the
water. Although few people possess less of the art of
conversation than our own countrymen, no other na
tion takes as wide a range in its discussions. He is
but a very indifferent American that does not know, or
thinks he knows, a little of every thing, and neither of
our worthies was in the least backward in supporting
the claims of the national character in this respect.
This general discussion completely restored amity be
tween the parties ; for, to confess the truth, our old
friend the Captain wras a little rebuked about the affair
of the tree. The only peculiarity worthy of notice, that
occurred in the course of their various digressions, was
the fact, that the commodore insensibly began to style
his companion " General ;" the courtesy of the country,
in his eyes, appearing to require that a man who had
seen so much more than himself, should, at least, enjoy a
title equal to his own in rank, and that of Admiral be
ing proscribed by the sensitiveness of republican prin
ciples. After fishing a few hours, the old laker pulled
the skiff up to the Point so often mentioned, where he
lighted a fire on the grass, and prepared a dinner.
When every thing wras ready, the two seated them
selves, and began to enjoy the fruits of their labours
in a way that will be understood by all sportsmen.

" I have never thought of asking you, general," said
the commodore, as ne began to masticate a perch,
" whether you are an aristocrat or a democrat. Wo
have had the government pretty much upside-down,
too, this morning, but this question has escaped me."

76 HOME AS FOUND.

" As we are here by ourselves under these venerable
oaks, and talking like two old messmates/' returned the
general, "I shall just own the truth, and make no bones
of it. I have been captain of my own ship so long,
that I have a most thorough contempt for all equality.
It is a vice that I deprecate, and, whatever may be the
laws of this country, I am of opinion, that equality is
no where borne out by the Law of Nations ; which,
after all, commodore, is the only true law for a gentle
man to live under."

" That is the law of the strongest, if I understand
the matter, general."

" Only reduced to rules. The Law of Nations, to
own the truth to you, is full of categories, and this will
give an enterprising man an opportunity to make use
of his knowledge. Would you believe, commodore,
that there are countries, in which they lay taxes on
tobacco?"

" Taxes on tobacco ! Sir, I never heard of such an
act of oppression under the forms of law ! What has
tobacco done, that any one should think of taxing it ?"

" I believe, commodore, that its greatest offence is
being so general a favourite. Taxation, I have found,
differs from most other things, generally attacking that
which men most prize."

"This is quite new to me, general ; a tax on tobacco!
The law-makers in those countries cannot chew. I
drink to your good health, sir, and to many happy re
turns of such banquets as this."

Here the commodore raised a large silver punch
bowl, which Pierre had furnished, to his lips, and fas
tening his eyes on the boughs of a knarled oak, he
looked like a man who was taking an observation, for
near a minute. All this time, the captain regarded him
with a sympathetic pleasure, and when the bowl wan
free, he imitated the example, levelling his own eye at
a cloud, that seemed floating at an angle of forty-five
degrees above him, expressly for that purpose.

HOME AS FOUXD. 77

" There is a lazy cloud!" exclaimed the general, as
ne let go his hold to catch breath; "I have been
watching it some time, and it has not moved an inch."

" Tobacco !" repeated the commodore, drawing a long
breath, as if he was just recovering the play of his
lungs, " I should as soon think of laying a tax on punch.
The country that pursues such a policy must, sooner
or later, meet with a downfall. I never knew good
come of persecution."

" I find you are a sensible man, commodore, and
regret I did not make your acquaintance earlier in life.
Have you yet made up your mind on the subject of
religious faith ?"

" Why, my dear general, not to be nibbling like a
sucker with a sore mouth, with a person of your liber
ality, I shall give you a plain history of my adventures,
in the way of experiences, that you may judge for
yourself. I was born an Episcopalian, if one can say
so, but was converted to Presbyterianism at twenty. I
stuck to this denomination about five years, when I
thought I would try the Baptists, having got to be fond
of the water, by this time. At thirty-two I fished a
while with the Methodists ; since which conversion, I
have chosen to worship God pretty much by myself,
out here on the lake."

" Do you consider it any harm, to hook a fish of a
Sunday?"

"No more than it is to eat a fish of a Sunday. I go
altogether by faith, in my religion, general, for they
talked so much to me of the uselessness of works, that
I've got to be very unparticular as to what I do. Your
people who have been converted four or five times, are
like so many pickerel, which strike at every hook."

" This is very much my case. Now, on the river —
of course you know where the river is?"

" Certain," said the commodore ; " it is at the foot
»f the lake."

" My dear commodore, -when we say ' the river,'
7*

78 HOME AS FOUND.

we always mean the Connecticut ; and I am surprised
a man of your sagacity should require to be told this.
There are people on the river who contend that a ship
should heave-to of a Sunday. They did talk of get
ting up an Anti-Sunday-Sailing-Society, but the ship
masters were too many for them, since they threatened
to start a society to put down the growing of inyens,
(the captain would sometimes use this pronunciation)
except of week-days. Well, I started in life, on the plat
form tack, in the way of religion, and I believe I shall
stand on the same course till orders come to ' cast an
chor,' as you call it. With you, I hold out for faith, as
the one thing needful. Pray, my good friend, what
are your real sentiments concerning * Old Hickory.'

" Tough, sir ; — Tough as a day in February on this
lake. All fins, and gills, and bones."

" That is the justest character I have yet heard of
the old gentleman ; and then it says so much in a few
words; no category about it. I hope the punch is to
your liking 1"

On this hint the old fisherman raised the bowl a
second time to his lips, and renewed the agreeable
duty of letting its contents flow down his throat, in a
pleasant stream. This time, he took aim at a gull that
was sailing over his head, only relinquishing the draught
as the bird settled into the water. The ' general ' was
more particular; for selecting a stationary object, in
the top of an oak, that grew on the mountain near
him, he studied it with an admirable abstruseness of
attention, until the last drop was drained. As soon as
this startling fact was mentioned, however, both the
convives set about repairing the accident, by squeezing
lemons, sweetening water, and mixing liquors, secun-
dem artem. At the same time, each lighted a cigar,
and the conversation, for some time, was carried on
between their teeth.

" We have been so frank with each other to-day, my
excellent commuuore," said Captain Truck, " that did

HOME AS FOUND. 79

I know your true sentiments concerning Temperance
Societies, I should look on your inmost soul as a part
of myself. By these free communications men get
really to know each other."

" If liquor is not made to be drunk, for what is it
made ? Any one may see that this lake was made for
skiffs and fishing ; it has a length, breadth, and depth,
suited to such purposes. Now, here is liquor distilled,
bottled, and corked, and I ask if all does not show that
it was made to be drunk. I dare say your temperance
men are ingenious, but let them answer that if they
can."

" I wish, from my heart, my dear sir, we had known
each other fifty years since. That would have brought
you acquainted with salt-water, and left nothing to be
clesired in your character. We think alike, I believe,
in every thing but on the virtues of fresh-water. If
these temperance people had their way, we should
all be turned into so many Turks, who never taste
wine, and yet marry a dozen wives."

" One of the great merits of fresh-water, general, is
what I call its mixable quality."

<< There would be an end to Saturday nights, too,
which are the seamen's tea-parties."

"I question if many of them fish in the rain, from
sunrise to sunset."

" Or, stand their watches in wet pee-jackets, from
sunset to sunrise. Splicing the main brace at such
times, is the very quintessence of human enjoyments."

"If liquors were not made to be drunk," put in the
commodore, logically, "I would again ask for what
are they made ? Let the temperance men get over that
difficulty if they can."

" Commodore, I wish you twenty more good hearty
years of fishing in this lake, which grows, each in
stant, more beautiful in my eyes, as I confess does the
whole earth ; and to show you that I say no more than
I think, I will clench it with a draught"

80 HOME AS FOUND.

Captain Truck now brought his right eye to bear on
the new moon, which happened to be at a convenient
height, closed the left one, and continued in that atti
tude until the commodore began seriously to think he
was to get nothing besides the lemon-seeds for his
share. This apprehension, however, could only arise
from ignorance of his companion's character, than
whom a juster man, according to the notions of ship
masters, did not live ; and had one measured the punch
that was left in the bowl when this draught was ended,
he would have found that precisely one half of it was
still untouched, to a thimblefull. The commodore now
had his turn ; and before he got through, the bottom of
the vessel was as much uppermost as the butt of a club
bed firelock. When the honest fisherman took breath
after this exploit, and lowered his cup from the vault
of heaven to the surface of the earth, he caught a view
of a boat crossing the lake, coming from the Silent
Pine, to that Point on which they were enjoying so
many agreeable hallucinations on the subject of tem
perance.

" Yonder is the party from the Wigwam," he said,
" and they will be just in time to become converts to
our opinions, if they have any doubts on the subjects
we have discussed. Shall we give up the ground to
them, by taking to the skiff, or do you feel disposed to
face the women ?"

" Under ordinary circumstances, commodore, I
should prefer your society to all the petticoats in the
State, but there are two ladies in that party, either of
whom I would marry, any day, at a minute's warning."

" Sir," said the commodore with a tone of warning,
" we, who have lived bachelors so long, and are wed
ded to the water, ought never to speak lightly on so
grave a subject."

" Nor do I. Two women, one of whom is twenty,
and the other seventy — and hang me if I know whi^h
I prefer."

HOME AS FOUND. 81

" You would soonest be rid of the last, my dear ge
neral, and my advice is to take her."

" Okl as she is, sir, a king would have to plead hard
to get her consent. We will make them some punch,
that they may see we were mindful of them in their
absence."

To work these worthies now went in earnest, in
order to anticipate the arrival of the party, and as the
different compounds were in the course of mingling,
the conversation did not flag. By this time both the
salt-water and the fresh-water sailor were in that con
dition when men are apt to think aloud, and the com
modore had lost all his awe of his companion.

" My dear sir," said the former, " I am a thousand
times sorry you came from that river, for, to tell
you my mind without any concealment, my only objec
tion to you is that you are not of the middle states.
I admit the good qualities of the Yankees, in a general
way, arid yet they are the very worst neighbours that
a man can have."

" This is a new character of them, commodore, as
they generally pass for the best, in their own eyes. I
should like to hear you explain your meaning."

" I call him a bad neighbour who never remains
long enough in a place to love any thing but himself.
Now, sir, I have a feeling for every pebble on the shore
of this lake, a sympathy with every wave," — here the
commodore began to twirl his hand about, with the
fingers standing apart, like so many spikes in a che-
vauz-de-frise — " and each hour, as I row across it, I
find I like it better ; and yet, sir, would you believe me,
I often go away of a morning to pass the day on the
water, and, on returning home at night, find half the
houses filled with new faces."

" What becomes of the old ones ?" demanded Cap
tain Truck ; for this, it struck him, was getting the bet
ter of him with his own weapons. " Do you mean
that the people come and go like the tides ?'

82 HOME AS FOUND.

"Exactly so, sir; just as it used to be with the her
rings in the Otsego, before the Susquehannah wag
dammed, and is still, with the swallows." f

"Well, well, my good friend, take consolation.
You'll meet ail the faces you ever saw here, one day,
in heaven."

"Never; not a man of them will stay there, if there
be such a thing as moving. Depend on it, sir," added
the commodore, in the simplicity of his heart, " heaven
is no place for a Yankee, if he can get farther west,
by hook or by crook. They are all too uneasy for any
steady occupation. You, who are a navigator, must
know something concerning the stars ; is there such a
thing as another world, that lies west of this ?"

" That can hardly be, commodore, since the points
of the compass only refer to objects on this earth.
You know, I suppose, that a man starting from this
spot, and travelling due west, would arrive, in time, at
this very point, coming in from the east; so that what
is west to us, in the heavens, on this side of the world,
is east to those on the other."

" This I confess I did not know, general. I have
understood that what is good in one man's eyes, wiL
be bad in another's ; but never before have I heard that
what is west to one man, lies east to another. I am
afraid, general, that there is a little of the sogdollager
bait in this ?"

" Not enough, sir, to catch the merest fresh-water
gudgeon that swims. No, no ; there is neither east nor
west off the earth, nor any up and down ; and so we
Yankees must try and content ourselves with heaven.
Now, commodore, hand me the bowl, and we will get
it ready down to the shore, and offer the ladies our
homage. And so you have become a laker in your
religion, my dear commodore," continued the general,
between his teeth, while he smoked and squeezed a
lemon at the same time, " and do your worshipping on
the water ?"

HOME AS FOUND. 83

" £ Itogether of late, and more especially since my
dream."

" Dream ! My dear sir, I should think you altogether
too innocent a man to dream."

" The best of us have our failings, general. I do
sometimes dream, I own, as well as the greatest sin
ner of them all."

"And of what did you dream — the sogdollagerl"

" I dreamt of death."

" Of slipping the cable !" cried the general, looking
up suddenly. " Well, what was the drift ?"

" Why, sir, having no wings, I went down below,
and soon found myself in the presence of the old gen
tleman himself."

" That was pleasant — had he a tail ? I have always
been curious to know whether he really has a tail or
not."

" I saw none, sir, but then we stood face to face, like
gentlemen, and I cannot describe what I did not see."

" Was he glad to see you, commodore ?"

" Why, sir, he was civilly spoken, but his occupa
tion prevented many compliments."

" Occupation !"

" Certainly, sir ; he was cutting out shoes, for his
imps to travel about in, in order to stir up mischief."

" And did he set you to work ? — This is a sort of
State-Prison affair, after all !"

" No sir, he was too much of a gentleman to set me
at making shoes as soon as I arrived. He first inquired
what part of the country I was from, and when I told
him, he was curious to know what most of the people
were about in our neighbourhood."

" You told him, of course, commodore ?"

" Certainly, sir, I told him their chief occupation
was quarrelling about religion ; making saints of them
selves, and sinners of their neighbours. ' Hollo !' says
the Devil, calling out to one of his imps, ' boy, run and
catch my horse — I must be off, and have a finger in

84 HOME AS FOUND.

that pie. What denominations have you in that quar
ter, commodore?' So I told him, general, that \ve
had Baptists, and Quakers, and Universalists, and
Episcopalians, and Presbyterians, old-lights, new-lights,

and blue-lights ; and Methodists . * Stop,' said the

Devil, * that's enough; you imp, be nimble with that
horse. — Let me see, commodore, what part of the
country did you say you came from ?' I told him the
name more distinctly this time "

" The very spot ?"

" Town and county."

" And what did the Devil say to that ?"

" He called out to the imp, again — * Hollo, you boy,
never mind that horse ; these people will all be here
before I can get there.' "

Here the commodore and the general began to
laugh, until the arches of the forest rang with their
merriment. Three times they stopped, and as often
did they return to their glee, until, the punch being
ready, each took a fresh draught, in order to ascertain
if it were fit to be offered to the ladies.

CHAPTER VI.

" O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo ?"

ROMEO AND JULIET.

THE usual effect of punch is to cause people to see
double ; but, on this occasion, the mistake was the other
way, for two boats had touched the strand, instead of
the one announced by the commodore, and they brought
with them the whole party from the Wigwam, Stead
fast and Aristabulus included. A domestic or two had
also been brought to prepare the customary repast.

Captain Truck was as good as his word, as respects

HOME AS TOUND. 85

ihe punch, and the beverage was offered to each of the
adies in form, as soon as her feet had touched the
green sward which covers that beautiful spot. Mrs.
Hawker declined drinking, in a way to delight the gal-
lant seaman ; for so completely had she got the better
of all his habits and prejudices, that every thing she
did seemed right and gracious in his eyes.

The party soon separated into groups, or pairs, some
being seated on the margin of the limpid water, enjoy
ing the light cool airs, by which it was fanned, others
lay off in the boats fishing, while the remainder plunged
into the woods, that, in their native wrildness, bounded
the little spot of verdure, which, canopied by old oaks,
formed the arena so lately in controversy. In this man
ner, an hour or two soon slipped away, when a sum
mons was given for all to assemble around the viands.

The repast was laid on the grass, notwithstanding
Aristabulus more than hinted that the public, his be
loved public, usually saw fit to introduce rude tables
for that purpose. The Messrs. Effinghams, however,
were not to be taught by a mere bird of passage, how
a rustic fete so peculiarly their own, ought to be con
ducted, and the attendants were directed to spread the
dishes on the turf. Around this spot, rustic seats were
improvises, and the business of restauration proceeded.
Of all there assembled, the Parisian feelings of Made
moiselle Viefville were the most excited ; for to her,
the scene wras one of pure delights, with the noble
panorama of forest-clad mountains, the mirror-like
lake, the overshadowing oaks, and the tangled brakes
of the adjoining woods.

" Mais, vraiment ceci surpassc fas Tuileri.es, meme
dans faur propre genre /" she exclaimed, with energy.
*! On passerait volojitiers par les dangers du desert pour
y parvenir"

Those who understood her, smiled at this character
istic remark, and most felt disposed to join in the
enthusiasm. Still, the manner in which their com

VOL. II. 8

86 HOME AS FOUND.

panions expressed the happiness they felt, appeared
tame and unsatisfactory to Mr. Bragg and Mr. Dodge,
these two persons being accustomed to see the young
of the two sexes indulge in broader exhibitions of
merry-making than those in which it comported with
the tastes and habits of the present party to indulge.
In vain Mrs. Hawker, in her quiet dignified way,
enjoyed the ready wit and masculine thoughts of Mrs.
Bloom field, appearing to renew her youth ; or, Eve,
\vith her sweet simplicity, and highly cultivated mind
and improved tastes, seemed like a highly-polished
mirror, to throw back the flashes of thought and
me-mory, that so constantly gleamed before both; it
was all lost on these thoroughly matter-of-fact utilita
rians. Mr. Effingham, all courtesy and mild refine
ment, was seldom happier ; and John Effingham was
never more pleasant, for he had laid aside the severity
of his character, to appear, what he ought always to
have been, a man in whom intelligence and quickness
of thought could be made to seem secondary to the
gentler qualities. The young men were not* behind
their companions, either, each, in his particular way,
appearing to advantage, gay, regulated, and full
of a humour that was rendered so much the more
agreeable, by drawing its images from a knowledge
of the world, that was tempered by observation and
practice.

Poor Grace, alone, was the only one of the whole
party, always excepting Aristabulus and Steadfast,
who, for those fleeting but gay hours, was not tho
roughly happy. For the first time in her life, she felt
her own deficiencies, that ready and available know
ledge, so exquisitely feminine in its nature and exhibi
tion, which escaped Mrs. Bloomfield and Eve, as it
might be from its own excess ; which the former pos
sessed almost intuitively, a gift of Heaven, and which
the latter enjoyed, not only from the same source, but
as a just consequence of her long and steady self-

HOME AS FOUND. 87

denial, application, and a proper appreciation of her
duty to herself, was denied one who, in ill-judged
compliance with the customs of a society that has no
other apparent aim than the love of display, had pre
cluded herself from enjoyments that none but the intel
lectual can feel. Still Grace was beautiful and attrac
tive ; and though she wondered where her cousin, in
general so simple and unpretending, had acquired all
those stores of thought, that, in the abandon and free
dom of such a fete, escaped her in rich profusion,
embellished with ready allusions and a brilliant though
chastened wit, her generous and affectionate heart
could permit her to wonder without envying. She
perceived, for the first time, on this occasion, that if
Eve were indeed a Hajji, it was not a Hajji of a com
mon school ; and, while her -modesty and self-abase
ment led her bitterly to regret the hours irretrievably
wasted in the frivolous levities so common to those of
her sex with whom she had been most accustomed to
mingle, her sincere regret did not lessen her admira
tion for one she began tenderly to love.

As for Messrs. Dodge and Bragg, they both deter
mined, in their own minds, that this was much the
most stupid entertainment they had ever seen on that
spot, for it \vas entirely destitute of loud laughing,
noisy merriment, coarse witticisms, and practical
jokes. To them it appeared the height of arrogance,
for any particular set of persons to presume to come
to a spot, rendered sacred by the public suffrage in its
favour, in order to indulge in these outlandish dog-in-
the-mangerisms.

Towards the close of this gay repast, and when the
party were about to yield their places to the attend
ants, who were ready to re-ship the utensils, John
Efringham observed—

"I trust, Mrs. Hawker, you have been duly warned
of the catastrophe-character of this point, on which
woman is said never to have been wooed in vain.

88 HOME AS FOUND.

Here are Captain Truck and myself, ready at any
momeni to use these carving knives, faute des Bou-ies,
in order to show our desperate devotion ; and I deem it
no more than prudent in you, not to smile again this
day, lest the cross-eyed readings of jealousy should
impute a wrong motive."

" Had the injunction been against laughing, sir, I
might have resisted, but smiles are far too feeble to
express one's approbation, on such a day as this ; you
may, therefore, trust to my discretion. Is it then true,
however, that Hymen haunts these shades ?"

" A bachelor's history of the progress of love, may
be, like the education of his children, distrusted ; but so
sayeth tradition ; and I never put my foot in the place,
without making fresh vows of constancy to myself.
After this announcement of the danger, dare you accept
an arm, for I perceive signs that life cannot be entirely
wasted in these pleasures, great as they may prove."

The whole party arose, and separating naturally,
they strolled in groups or pairs again, along the pebbly
strand, or beneath the trees, while the attendants made
the preparations to depart. Accident, as much as
design, left Sir George and Grace alone, for neither
perceived the circumstance until they had both passed
a little rise in the formation of the ground, and were
beyond the view of their companions. The baronet
was the first to perceive how much he had been
favoured by fortune, and his feelings were touched by
the air of gentle melancholy, that shaded the usually
bright and brilliant countenance of the beautiful girl.

"I should have thrice enjoyed this pleasant day," he
said, with an interest in his manner, that caused the
heart of Grace to beat quicker, " had I not seen that to
you it has been less productive of satisfaction, than to
most of those around you. I fear you may not be as
well, as usual ?"

" In health, never better, though not in spirits, per
haps."

HOME AS FOUND. 89

" I could wish I had a right to inquire why you.
who have so few causes in general to be out of spirits,
should have chosen a moment so little in accordance
with the common feeling."

"I have chosen no moment; the moment has cho
sen me, I fear. Not until this day, Sir George Tern
jDlemore, have I ever been truly sensible of my great
inferiority to my cousin, Eve."

"An inferiority that no one but yourself would ob
serve or mention."

" No, I am neither vain enough, nor ignorant enough,
to be the dupe of this flattery," returned Grace, shaking
her hands and head, while she forced a smile ; for even
the delusions those we love pour into our ears, are
not without their charms. " When I first met my
cousin, after her return, my own imperfections ren
dered me blind to her superiority; but she herself has
gradually taught me to respect her mind, her womanly
character, her tact, her delicacy, principles, breeding,
every thing that can make a woman estimable, or
worthy to be loved ! Oh ! how have I wasted in
childish amusements, arid frivolous vanities, the precious
moments of that girlhood which can never be recalled,
and left myself scarcely worthy to be an associate of
Eve Effingham !"

The first feelings of Grace had so far gotten the
control, that she scarce knew what she said, or to
whom she was speaking ; she even wrung her hands,
in the momentary bitterness of her regrets, and in a
way to arouse all the sympathy of a lover.

*' No one but yourself would say this, Miss Van
Cortlandt, and least of all your admirable cousin."

" She is, indeed, my admirable cousin ! But what
are we, in comparison with such a woman. Simple
and unaffected as a child, with the intelligence of a
scholar ; with all the graces of a woman, she has the
learning and mind of a man. Mistress of so many

languages "

8*

90 HOME AS FOUND.

"But you, too, speak several, my dear Miss Van

" Yes," said Grace, bitterly, " I speak them, as the
parrot repeats words that he does not understand. But
Eve Effingham has used these languages as means,
and she does not tell you merely what such a phrase
or idiom signifies, but what the greatest writers have
thought and written."

" No one has a more profound respect for your cou
sin than myself, Miss Van Cortlandt, but justice to you
requires that I should say her great superiority over
yourself has escaped me."

" This may be true, Sir George Templemore, and
for a long time it escaped me too. I have only learned
to prize her as she ought to be prized by an intimate
acquaintance ; hour by hour, as it. might be. But even
you must have observed how quick and intuitively my
cousin and Mrs. Bloomfield have understood each other
to-day; how much extensive reading, and what pol
ished tastes they have both shown, and all so truly
feminine ! Mrs. Bloomfield is a remarkable woman,
but she loves these exhibitions, for she knows she ex
cels in them. Not so with Eve Effingham, who, while
she so thoroughly enjoys every thing intellectual, is con
tent, always, to seem so simple. Now, it happens, that
the conversation turned once to-day on a subject that
my cousin, no later than yesterday, fully explained to
me, at my own earnest request ; and I observed that,
while she joined so naturally with Mrs. Bloomfield in
adding to our pleasure, she kept back half what she
knew, lest she might seem to surpass her friend. No — •
no — no — there is not such another woman as Eve
Effingham in this world !"

" So keen a perception of excellence in others, de
notes an equal excellence in yourself."

" I know my own great inferiority now, and no kind
ness of yours, Sir George Templemore, can ever per
suade me into a better opinion of myself. Eve has

HOME AS FOUND. 91

travelled, seen much in Europe that does not exist here,
and, instead of passing her youth in girlish trifling, has
treated the minutes as if they were all precious, as she
well knew them to be."

" If Europe, then, does indeed possess these advan
tages, why not yourself visit it, dearest Miss Van
Cortlandt1?"

*• I — I a Hajji!" cried Grace with childish pleasure,
though her colour heightened, and, for a moment, Eve
and her superiority was forgotten.

Certainly Sir George Templemore did not come out
on the lake that day with any expectation of offering
his baronetcy, his fair estate, with his hand, to this art
less, half-educated, provincial, but beautiful girl. For
a long time he had been debating with himself the pro
priety of such a step, and it is probable that, at some
later period, he would have sought an occasion, had
not one now so opportunely offered, notwithstanding
all his doubts and reasonings with himself. If the
" woman who hesitates is lost," it is equally true that
the man who pretends to set up his reason alone against
beauty, is certain to find that sense is less powerful
than the senses. Had Grace Van Cortlandt been more
sophisticated, less natural, her beauty might have failed
to make this conquest; but the baronet found a charm
in her naivete, that was singularly winning to the feel
ings of a man of the world. Eve had first attracted
him by the same quality; the early education of Ame
rican females being less constrained and artificial than
that of the English ; but in Eve he found a mental train
ing and acquisitions that left the quality less conspicu-
. ous, perhaps, than in her scarcely less beautiful cousin ;
though, had Eve met his admiration with any thing
like sympathy, her power over him would riot have
been easily weakened. As it was, Grace had been;
gradually winding herself around his affections, and
he now poured out his love, in a language that her un
practised and already favourably disposed feelings had

92 HOME AS FOUJfD.

no means of withstanding. A very few minutes were
allowed to them, before the summons to the boat; but
when this summons came, Grace rejoined the party,
elevated in her own good opinion, as happy as a cloud
less future could make her, and without another
thought of the immeasurable superiority of her cousin.

By a singular coincidence, while the baronet and
Grace were thus engaged on one part of the shore.
Eve was the subject of a similar proffer of connecting
herself for life, on another. She had left the circle,
attended by Paul, her father, and Aristabulus ; but no
sooner had they reached the margin of the water, than
the two former were called away by Captain Truck,
to settle some controverted point between the latter
and the commodore. By this unlooked-for desertion,
Eve found herself alone with Mr. Bragg.

" That was a funny and comprehensive remark Mr.
John made about the 'Point,' Miss Eve," Aristabulus
commenced, as soon as he found himself in possession
of the ground. " I should like to know it it be really
true that no woman was ever unsuccessfully wooed
beneath these oaks? If such be the case, we gentle
men ought to be cautious how we come here."

Here Aristabulus simpered, and looked, if possible,
more amiable than ever ; though the quiet composure
and womanly dignity of Eve, who respected herself
too much, and too well knew what was due to her sex,
even to enter into, or, so far as it depended on her will,
to permit any of that common-place and vulgar trifling
about love and matrimony, which formed a never-fail
ing theme between the youthful of the two sexes, in
Mr. Bragg's particular circle, sensibly curbed his am
bitious hopes. Still he thought he had made too good
an opening, not to pursue the subject.

" Mr. John Effingham sometimes indulges in plea
santries," Eve answered, "that would lead one astray
who might attempt to follow."

"Love is a jack-o'-lantern," rejoined Aristabulus,

HOME AS FOUND. 93

sentimentally. "That I admit; and it is no wonder
so many get swamped in following his lights. Have
you ever felt the tender passion, Miss Eve'?"

Now, Aristabulus had heard this question put at the
soiree of Mrs. Houston, more than once, and he be
lieved himself to be in the most polite road for a
regular declaration. An ordinary woman, who fell
herself offended by this question, would, most probably,
have stepped back, and, raising her form to its utmost
elevation, answered by an emphatic "sir!" Not so
with Eve. She felt the distance between Mr. Bragg
and herself to be so great, that by no probable means
could he even offend her by any assumption of equality.
This distance was the result of opinions, habits, and
education, rather than of condition, however; for,
though Eve Effingham could become the wife of a
gentleman only, she was entirely superior to those pre
judices of the world that depend on purely factitious
causes. Instead of discovering surprise, indignation,
or dramatic dignity, therefore, at this extraordinary
question, she barely permitted a smile to curl her hand
some mouth ; and this so slightly, as to escape her
companion's eye.

" I believe we are to be favoured with as smooth
water, in returning to the village, as we had in the
morning, while coming to this place," she simply said.
"You row sometimes, I think, Mr. Bragg?"

" Ah ! Miss Eve, such another opportunity may
never occur again, for you foreign ladies are so diffi
cult of access ! Let me, then, seize this happy mo
ment, here, beneath the hymeneal oaks, to offer you
this faithful hand and this willing heart. Of fortune
you will have enough for both, and I say nothing about
the miserable dross. Reflect, Miss Eve, how happy
we might be, protecting and soothing the old age of
your father, and in going down the hill of life in com
pany ; or, as the song says, * and hand in hand we '11
go, and sleep the'gither at the foot, John Anderson,
my Joe.' "

04

HOME AS FOUND.

"You draw very agreeable pictures, Mr. Bragg,
and with the touches of a master !'"

•'However agreeable you find them, Miss Eve,
they fall infinitely short of the truth. The tie of wed
lock, besides being the most sacred, is also the dear
est ; and happy, indeed, are they who enter into the
solemn engagement with such cheerful prospects as
ourselves. Our ages are perfectly suitable, our dispo
sition entirely consonant, our habits so similar as to
obviate all unpleasant changes, and our fortunes pre
cisely what they ought to be to render a marriage hap
py, with confidence on one side, and gratitude on the
other. As to the day, Miss Eve, I could wish to leave
you altogether the mistress of that, and shall not be
urgent."

Eve had often heard John Effingham comment on
the cool impudence of a particular portion of the Ame
rican population, with great, amusement to herself; but
never did she expect to be the subject of an attack like
this in her own person. By way of rendering the
scene perfect, Aristabulus had taken out his penknife,
cut a twig from a bush, and he now rendered himself
doubly interesting by commencing the favourite occu
pation of whittling. A cooler picture of passion could
not well have been drawn.

" You are bashfully silent, Miss Eve ! I make all
due allowances for natural timidity, and shall say no
more at present — though, as silence universally ' gives
consent "'

" If you please, sir," interrupted Eve, with a slight
motion of her parasol, that implied a check. " I pre
sume our habits and opinions, notwithstanding you
seem to think them so consonant with each other,
are sufficiently different to cause you not to see the
impropriety of one, who is situated like yourself,
abusing the confidence of a parent, by making such a
proposal to a daughter without her father's knowledge :
and, on that point, I shall say nothing. But as you

HOME AS FOUND. 95

have done me the honour of making me a very une?
quivocal offer of your hand, I wish that the answer
may be as distinct as the proposal. I decline the ad
vantage and happiness of becoming your wife, sir "

" Time flies, Miss Eve I"

" Time does fly. Mr. Bragg ; and, if you remain
much longer in the employment of Mr. Eflingham, you
may lose an opportunity of advancing your fortunes at
the west, whither I understand it has long been your
intention to emigrate "

" I will readily relinquish all my hopes at the west,
for your sake."

" No, sir, I cannot be a party to such a sacrifice. I
will not say forget me, but forget your hopes here, and
renew those you have so unreflectingly abandoned be
yond the Mississippi. I shall not represent this con
versation to Mr. Effingham in a manner to create any
unnecessary prejudices against you ; and while I thank
you, as every wroman should, for an offer that must in
fer some portion, at least, of your good opinion, you
will permit me again to wish you all lawful success in
your western enterprises."

Eve gave Mr. Bragg no farther opportunity to
renew his suit ; for, she curtsied and left him, as she
ceased speaking. Mr. Dodge, who had been a distant
observer of the interview, now hastened to -join his
friend, curious to know the result, for it had been pri
vately arranged between these modest youths, that
each should try his fortune in turn, with the heiress,
did she not accept the first proposal. To the chagrin
of Steadfast, and probably to the reader's surprise,
Aristabulus informed his friend that Eve's manner and
language had been full of encouragement.

"She thanked me for the offer, Mr. Dodge," he
said, " and her wishes for my future prosperity at the
west, were warm and repeated. Eve Effingham is,
indeed, a charming creature !"

" At the west ! Perhaps she meant differently from

96 HOME AS FOUND.

what you imagine. I know her well; the girl is fuL
of art."

" Art, sir ! she spoke as plainly as woman could
speak, and I repeat that I feel considerably encouraged.
l't is something, to have had so plain a conversation
with Eve Effingham."

Mr. Dodge swallowed his discontent, and the whole
party soon embarked, to return to the village ; the
commodore and general taking* a boat by themselves,
in order to bring their discussions on human affairs in
general, to a suitable close.

That night, Sir George Templemore, asked an
interview with Mr. Effingham, when the latter was
alone in his library.

" I sincerely hope this request is not the forerunner
of a departure," said the host kindly, as the young
man entered, " in which case I shall regard you as one
unmindful of the hopes he has raised. You stand
pledged by implication, if not in words, to pass another
month with us."

" So far from entertaining an intention so faithless,
my dear sir, I am fearful that you may think I trespass
too far on your hospitality."

He then communicated his wish to be allowed to
make Grace Van Cortlandt his wife. Mr. Effingham
heard him with a smile, that showed he was not alto
gether unprepared for such a demand, and his eye
glistened as he squeezed the other's hand.

" Take her with all my heart, Sir George," he said,
" but remember you are transferring a tender plant into
a strange soil. There are not many of your country
men to whom I would confide such a trust, for I know
the risk they run who make ill-assorted unions "

" Ill-assorted unions, Mr. Effingham !"

" Yours will not be one, in the ordinary acceptation
of the term, I know ; for in years, birth and fortune, you
and my dear niece are as much on an equality as can
be desired : but it is too often an ill-assorted union for

HOME AS FOUND. 97

an American woman to become an English wife. So
much depends on the man, that with one in whom I
have less confidence than I have in you, I might justly
hesitate. I shall take a guardian's privilege, though
Grace be her own mistress, and give you one solemn
piece of advice — always respect the country of the
woman you have thought worthy to bear your name."

" I hope always to respect every thing that is hers;
but, why this particular caution ? — Miss Van Cortlandt
is almost English in her heart."

"An affectionate wife will take her bias in such mat
ters, generally from her husband. Your country will
be her country, your God her God. Still, Sir George
Templemore, a woman of spirit and sentiment can
never wholly forget the land of her birth. You love
us not in England, and one who settles there will often
have occasion to hear gibes and sneers on the land from
which she came "

" Good God, Mr. Effingham, you do not think I shall
take my wife into society where "

" Bear with a proser's doubts, Templemore. You
will do all that is well-intentioned and proper, I dare
say, in the usual acceptation of the words ; but I wish
you to do more ; that which is wise. Grace has now
a sincere reverence and respect for England, feelings
that in many particulars are sustained by the facts,
and will be permanent ; but, in some things, obser
vation, as it usually happens with the young and san
guine, will expose the mistakes into which she has been
led by enthusiasm and the imagination. As she knows
other countries better, she will comt to regard her
own with more favourable and discriminating eyes,
losing her sensitiveness on account of peculiarities she
now esteems, and taking new views of things. Per
haps you will think me selfish, but I shall add, also,
that if you wish to cure your wife of any homesick
ness, the surest mode will be to bring her back to
her native land."

VOL. II. 9

98 HOME AS FOUffD.

"Nay, my dear sir," said Sir George, laughing,
" this is very much like acknowledging its blemishes."

" I am aware it has that appearance, and yet the
fact is otherwise. The cure is as certain with the
Englishman as with the American ; and with the Ger
man as with either. It depends on a general law,
which causes us all to over-estimate by-gone plea
sures and distant scenes, and to undervalue those of
the present moment. You know I have always main
tained there is no real philosopher short of fifty, nor
any taste worth possessing that is a dozen years old."

Here Mr. Effingham rang the bell, and desired
Pierre to request Miss Van Cortlandt to join him in
the library. Grace entered blushing and shy, but with
a countenance beaming with inward peace. Her
uncle regarded her a moment intently, and a tear glis
tened in his eye, again, as he tenderly kissed her burn
ing cheek.

"God bless you, love," he said — "'tis a fearful
change for your sex, and yet you all enter into it radiant
with hope, and noble in your confidence. Take her,
Templemore," giving her hand to the baronet, " and
deal kindly by her. You will not desert us entirely.
I trust I shall see you both once more in the Wigwam
before I die."

" Uncle — uncle — " burst from Grace, as, drowned
in tears, she threw herself into Mr. Effingham's arms ;
" I am an ungrateful girl, thus to abandon all my
natural friends. I have acted wrong "

" Wrong, dearest Miss Van Cortlandt !"

" Selfishly, then, Sir George Templemore," the sim
ple-hearted girl ingenuously added, scarcely knowing
how much her words implied — " Perhaps this matter
might be reconsidered."

"I am afraid little would be gained by that, my
love," returned the smiling uncle, wiping his eyes at
the same instant. " The second thoughts of ladies
usually confirm the first, in such matters. God bless

HOME AS FOUND. 99

you, Grace ; — Templemore, may Heaven have you,
too, in its holy keeping. Remember what I have said,
and to-morrow we will converse further on the subject.
Does Eve know of this, my niece?"

The colour went and came rapidly in Grace's
cheek, and she looked to the floor, abashed.

"We ought then to send for her," resumed Mr.
Effingham, again reaching towards the bell.

" Uncle — " and Grace hurriedly interposed, in time
to save the string from being pulled. " Could I keep
such an important secret from my dearest cousin !"

" I find that I am the last in the secret, as is gene
rally the case with old fellows, and I believe I am even
now de trop."

Mr. EfHngham kissed Grace again affectionately,
and, although she strenuously endeavoured to detain
him, he left the room.

" We must follow," said Grace, hastily wiping her
eyes, and rubbing the traces of tears from her cheeks
— "Excuse me, Sir George Templemore; will you
open "

He did, though it was not the door, but his arms.
Grace seemed like one that was rendered giddy by
standing on a precipice, but when she fell, the young
baronet was at hand to receive her. Instead of quitting
the library that instant, the bell had announced the
appearance of the supper-tray, before she remembered
that she had so earnestly intended to do so.

100 HOME AS FOUND.

CHAPTER VII.

" This day, no man thinks
He has business at his house."

KING HENRY VIII.

THE warm weather, which was always a little be
hind that of the lower counties, had now set in among
the mountains, and the season had advanced into the
first week in July. " Independence Day," as the fourth
of that month is termed by the Americans, arrived ;
and the wits of Templeton were taxed, as usual, in
order that the festival might be celebrated with the
customary intellectual and moral treat. The morning
commenced with a parade of the two or three uni
formed companies of the vicinity, much gingerbread
and spruce-beer were consumed in the streets, no light,
potations of whiskey were swallowed in the groceries,
and a great variety of drinks, some of whicn bore
very ambitious names, shared the same fate in the
taverns.

Mademoiselle Viefville had been told that this was
the great American fete; the festival of the nation ; and
she appeared that morning in gay ribands, and with
her bright, animated face, covered with smiles for the
occasion. To her surprise, however, no one seemed
to respond to her feelings ; and as the party rose from
the breakfast-table, she took an opportunity to ask an
explanation of Eve, in a little ' aside.'

" Est-ce que je me suis trompee, ma chere?" demand
ed the lively Frenchwoman. " Is not this la celebra
tion de votre indtpendance ?"

" You are not mistaken, my dear Mademoiselle
Viefville, and great preparations are made to do it
honour. I understand there is to be a military pa
rade, an oration, a dinner, and fire-works."

HOME AS FOUISTD. 101

" Monsieur votre pere ?"

" Monsieur mon pere is not much given to rejoicings,
and he takes this annual joy, much as a valetudinarian
takes his morning draught."

" Et Monsieur Jean Effingham ?"

" Is always a philosopher; you are to expect no an
tics from him."

" Mais ces jeunes geiis, Monsieur Bragg, Monsieur
Dodge, et Monsieur Powis, meme /"

" Se rejouissent en Americains. I presume you are
aware that Mr. Powis has declared himself to be an
American ?"

Mademoiselle Viefville looked towards the streets,
along which divers tall, sombre-looking countrymen,
with faces more lugubrious than those of the mutes
of a funeral, were sauntering, with a desperate air of
enjoyment; and she shrugged her shoulders, as she
muttered to herself, " que ces Americains sont droles /"

At a later hour, however, Eve surprised her father,
and indeed most of the Americans of the party, by
proposing that the ladies should walk out into the
street, and witness the fete.

" My child, this is a strange proposition to come
from a young lady of twenty," said her father.

"Why strange, dear sir? — We always mingled in
the village fetes in Europe."

" Certainement" cried the delighted Mademoiselle
Viefville ; " c'est de n'gueur, meme"

"And it is de rigueur, here, Mademoiselle, for
young ladies to keep out of them," put in John Effing-
ham. " I should be very sorry to see either of you
three ladies in the streets of Templeton to-day."

" Why so, cousin Jack ? Have we any thing to fear
from the rudeness of our countrymen ? I have always
understood, on the contrary, that in no other part of
the world is woman so uniformly treated with respect
and kindness, as in this very republic of ours ; and
yet, by all these ominous faces, I perceive that it will
9*

102 HOME AS FOUND.

not do for her to trust herself in the streets of a vil
lage on a festa"

" You are not altogether wrong, in what you now
say, Miss Effingham, nor are you wholly right. Wo
man, as a whole, is well treated in America ; and yet
it will not do for a lady to mingle in scenes like these,
as ladies may and do mingle with them in Europe."

" I have heard this difference accounted for," said
Paul Powis, " by the fact that women have no legal
rank in this country. In those nations where the sta
tion of a lady is protected by legal ordinances, it is
said she may descend with impunity; but, in this,
where all are equal before the law, so many misunder
stand the real merits of their position, that she is obliged
-o keep aloof from any collisions with thase who might
be disposed to mistake their own claims.

" But I wish for no collisions, no associations, Mr.
Powis, but simply to pass through the streets, with my
cousin and Mademoiselle Viefville, to enjoy the sight
of the rustic sports, as one would do in France, or
Italy, or even in republican Switzerland, if you insist
on a republican example."

" Rustic sports !" repeated Aristabulus with a fright
ened look — "the people will not bear to hear their
sports called rustic, Miss Effingham."

" Surely, sir," — Eve never spoke to Mr. Bragg, now,
without using a repelling politeness — " surely, sir, the
people of these mountains will hardly pretend that
their sports are those of a capital."

"I merely mean, ma'am, that the term would be
monstrously unpopular ; nor do I see why the sports
in a city" — Aristabulus was much too peculiar in his
notions,* to call any place that had a mayor and alder-
men a town, — " should not be just as rustic as those
of a village. The contrary supposition violates the
principle of equality."

" And do you decide against us, dear sir?" Eve added,
looking at Mr. Effingham.

HOME AS FOUND. 103

"Without stopping to examine causes, my child, I
shall say that I think you had better all remain at
home."

" Voilci, Mademoiselle Viefville,unefeteJlmericaine!"

A shrug of the shoulders was the significant reply.

" Nay, my daughter, you are not entirely excluded
from the festivities ; all gallantry has not quite deserted
the land."

*' A young lady shall walk alone with a young gen
tleman — shall ride alone with him — shall drive out
alone with him — shall not move without him, dans le
monde, mais, she shall not walk in the crowd, to look
at une fete, avec son p&re /" exclaimed Mademoiselle
Viefville, in her imperfect English. "Je desespere,
vraiment, to understand some habitudes Jlmericaines /"

" Well, Mademoiselle, that you may not think us al
together barbarians, you shall, at least, have the benefit
of the oration."

" You may well call it the oration, Ned ; for, I believe
one, or, certainly one skeleton, has served some thou
sand orators annually, any time these sixty years."

" Of this skeleton, then, the ladies shall have the
benefit. The procession is about to form, I hear ; and
by getting ready immediately, we shall be just in time
to obtain good seats."

Mademoiselle Viefville was delighted ; for, after try
ing the theatres, the churches, sundry balls, the opera,
and all the admirable gaieties of New-York, she had
reluctantly come to the conclusion that America was a
very good country pour s'ennuyer, and for very little
else; but here was the promise of a novelty. The
ladies completed their preparations, and, accord
ingly, attended by all the gentlemen, made their ap
pearance in the assembly, at the appointed hour.

The orator, who, as usual, was a lawyer, was al
ready in possession of the pulpit, for one of the village
churches had been selected as the scene of the cere
monies. He was a young man, who had recently been

104 HOME AS FOUND.

called to the bar, it being as much in rule for the legal
tyro to take off the wire-edge of his wit in a Fourth
of July oration, as it was formerly for a Mousquetaire
to prove his spirit in a duel. The academy which,
formerly, was a servant of all work to the public, be
ing equally used for education, balls, preaching, town-
meetings, and caucuses, had shared the fate of most
American edifices in wood, having lived its hour and
been burned ; and the collection of people, whom we
have formerly had occasion to describe, appeared to
have also vanished from the earth, for nothing could
be less alike in exterior, at least, than those who had
assembled under the ministry of Mr. Grant, and their
successors, who were now collected to listen to the
wisdom of Mr. Writ. Such a thing as a coat of two
generations was no longer to be seen ; the latest fash
ion, or what was thought to be the latest fashion, be
ing as rigidly respected by the young farmer, or the
young mechanic, as by the more admitted bucks, the
law student, and the village shop-boy. All the red
cloaks had long since been laid aside to give place to
imitation merino shawls, or, in cases of unusual mode
ration and sobriety, to mantles of silk. As Eve glanced
her eye around her, she perceived Tuscan hats, bon
nets of gay colours and flowers, and dresses of French
chintzes, where fifty years ago would have been seen
even men's woollen hats, and homely English calicoes.
It is true that the change among the men was not quite
as striking, for their attire admits of less variety ; but
the black stock had superseded the check handkerchiet
and the bandanna ; gloves had taken the places of mit
tens ; and the coarse and clownish shoe of " cow-hide"
was supplanted by the calf-skin boot.

" Where are your peasants, your rustics, your milk
and dairy maids — the people, in short" — whispered Sir
George Templemore to Mrs. Bloomfield, as they took
their seats ; " or is this occasion thought to be too in
tellectual for them, and the present assembly com
posed only of the elite ?"

HOME AS FOUND. 105

" These are the people, and a pretty fair sample, too,
of their appearance and deportment. Most of these men
are what you in England would call operatives, and
the women are their wives, daughters, and sisters."

The baronet said nothing at the moment, but he sat
looking around him with a curious eye for some time,
when he again addressed his companion.

" I see the truth of what you say, as regards the
men, for a critical eye can discover the proofs of their
occupations ; but, surely, you must be mistaken as re
spects your own sex ; there is too much delicacy of
form and feature for the class you mean."

" Nevertheless, I have said naught but truth."

" But look at the hands and the feet, dear Mrs. Bloom-
field. Those are French gloves, too, or I am mis
taken."

" I will not positively affirm that the French gloves
actually belong to the dairy-maids, though I have
known even this prodigy ; but, rely on it, you see here
the proper female counterparts of the men, and singu
larly delicate and pretty females are they, for persons
of their class. This is what you call democratic
coarseness and vulgarity, Miss Effingham tells me, in
England."

Sir George smiled, but, as what it is the fashion of
the country to call * the exercises,' just then began, he
made no other answer.

These exercises commenced with instrumental mu
sic, certainly the weakest side of American civiliza
tion. That of the occasion of which we write, had
three essential faults, all of which are sufficiently gene
ral to be termed characteristic, in a national point of
view. In the first place, the instruments themselves
were bad ; in the next place, they were assorted with
out any regard to harmony; and, in the last place,
their owners did not know how to use them. As in
certain American cities — the word is well applied here
— she is esteemed the greatest belle who can contrive

106 HOME AS FOUND.

to utter her nursery sentiments in the loudest voice, so
in Templeton, was he considered the ablest musician
who could give the greatest eclat to a false note. In
a word, clamour was the one thing needful, and as
regards time, that great regulator of all harmonies,
Paul Powis whispered to the captain that the air they
had just been listening to, resembled what the sailors
call a * round robin ;' or a particular mode of signing
complaints practised by seamen, in which the nicest
observer cannot tell which is the beginning, or which
the end.

It required all the Parisian breeding of Mademoi
selle Viefville to preserve her gravity during this over
ture, though she kept her bright animated, French-
looking eyes, roaming over the assembly, with an air
of delight that, as Mr. Bragg would say, made her
very popular. No one else in the party from the Wig
wam, Captain Truck excepted, dared look up, but each
Kept his or her eyes riveted on the floor, as if in silent
enjoyment of the harmonies. As for the honest old
seaman, there was as much melody in the howling of
a gale to his unsophisticated ears, as in any thing else,
and he saw no difference between this feat of the Tem
pleton band and the sighings' of old Boreas ; and, to say
the truth, our nautical critic was not so much out of
the way.

Of the oration it is scarcely necessary to say much,
for if human nature is the same in all ages, and under
all circumstances, so is a fourth of July oration. There
were the usual allusions to Greece and Rome, between
the republics of which and that of this country there
exists some such affinity as is to be found between a
horse-chestnut and a chestnut-horse ; or that of mere
words; and a long catalogue of national glories that
might very well have sufficed for all the republics, both
of antiquity and of our own time. But when the ora
tor came to speak of the American character, and par
ticularly of the intelligence of the nation, he was most

HOME AS FOUND. 107

felicitous, and made the largest investments in popu
larity. According to his account of the matter, no
other people possessed a tithe of the knowledge, or a
hundredth part of the honesty and virtue of the very
community he was addressing ; and after labouring foi
ten minutes to convince his hearers that they already
knew every thing, he wasted several more in trying to
persuade them to undertake further acquisitions of the
same nature.

" How much better all this might be made," said
Paul Powis, as the party returned towards the Wig
wam, when the * exercises' were ended, "by substi
tuting a little plain instruction on the real nature and
obligations of the institutions, for so much unmeaning
rhapsody. Nothing has struck me with more surprise
and pain, than to find how far, or it might be better to
say, how high, ignorance reaches on such subjects,
and how few men, in a country where all depends on
the institutions, have clear notions concerning their
own condition."

" Certainly this is not the opinion we usually enter
tain of ourselves," observed John Effingham. " And
yet it ought to be. I am far from underrating
the ordinary information of the country, which, as an
average information, is superior to that of almost
every other people ; nor am I one of those who, ac
cording to the popular European notion, fancy the
Americans less gifted than common in intellect ; there
can be but one truth in any thing, however, and it falls
to the lot of very few, any where, to master it. The
Americans, moreover, are a people of facts and prac
tices, paying but little attention to principles, and
giving themselves the very minimum of time for inves
tigations that lie beyond the reach of the common
mind ; and it follows that they know little of that which
does not present itself in their every-day transactions.
As regards the practice of the institutions, it is
regulated here, as elsewhere, by party, and party is
never an honest or a disinterested expounder."

108 HOME AS FOUND.

"Are you, then, more than in the common dilem
ma," asked Sir George, "or worse off than youi
neighbours V :

" We are worse off than our neighbours, for the
simple reason that it is the intention of the American
system, which has been deliberately framed, and which
is moreover the result of a bargain, to carry out its
theory in practice ; whereas, in countries where the
institutions are the results of time and accidents, im
provement is only obtained by innovations. Party
invariably assails and weakens power. When power
is the possession of a few, the many gain by party ;
but when power is the legal right of the many, the
few gain by party. Now, as party has no ally as
strong as ignorance and prejudice, a right understand
ing of the principles of a government is of far more
importance in a popular government, than in any
other. In place of the eternal eulogies on facts, that
one hears on all public occasions in this country, I
would substitute some plain and clear expositions of
principles ; or, indeed, I might say, of facts as they
are connected with principles."

"Mais, la musique, Monsieur" interrupted Made
moiselle Viefville, in a way so droll as to raise a gene
ral smile, " qtfen pensez-vous ?"

" That it is music, my dear Mademoiselle, in neither
fact nor principle."

" It only proves that a people can be free, Mademoi
selle," observed Mrs. Bloomfield, " and enjoy fourth
of July orations, without having very correct notions
of harmony or time. But do our rejoicings end here.
Miss Effingham ?"

" Not at all — there is still something in reserve for
the day, and all who honour it. I am told the even
ing, which promises to be sufficiently sombre, is to
terminate with a fete that is peculiar to Tempieton,
and which is called • The Fun of Fire.' "

" It is an ominous name, and ought to be a brilliant
ceremony."

HOME AS FOUND. 109

As this was uttered, the whole party entered the
Wigwam.

" The Fun of Fire" took place, as a matter of course,
at a later hour. When night had set in, every body
appeared in the main street of the village, a part of
which, from its width and form, \vas particularly
adapted to the sports of the evening. The females
were mostly at the windows, or on such elevated stands
as favoured their view, and the party from the Wigwam
occupied a large balcony that topped the piazza of one
of the principal inns of the place.

The sports of the night commenced with rockets, of
which a few, that did as much credit to the climate as
to the state of the pyrotechnics of the village, were
thrown up, as soon as the darkness had become suffi
ciently dense to lend them brilliancy. Then followed
wheels, crackers and serpents, all of the most primitive
kind, if, indeed, there be any thing primitive in such
amusements. The " Fun of Fire" was to close the
rejoicings, and it was certainly worth all the other
sports of that day, united, the gingerbread and spruce
beer included.

A blazing ball cast from a shop-door, was the signal
for the commencement of the Fun. It was merely a
ball of rope-yarn, or of some other similar material,
saturated with turpentine, and it burned with a bright,
fierce flame until consumed. As the first of these fiery
meteors sailed into the street, a common shout from the
boys, apprentices, and young men, proclaimed that the
fun waS at hand. It was followed by several more,
and in a few minutes the entire area was gleaming
with glancing light. The whole of the amusement
consisted in tossing the fire-balls with boldness,
and in avoiding them with dexterity, something
like competition soon entering into the business of the
scene.

The effect was singularly beautiful. Groups of dark

VOL. II. 10

110 HOME AS FOUND.

objects became suddenly illuminated, and here a portion
of the throng might be seen beneath a brightness like
that produced by a bonfire, while all the back-ground
of persons and faces were gliding about in a darkness
that almost swallowed up a human figure. Suddenly
all this would be changed ; the brightness would pass
away, and a ball alighting in a spot that had seemed
abandoned to gloom, it would be found peopled with
merry countenances, and active forms. The constant
changes from brightness to deep darkness, with all the
varying gleams of light and shadow, made the beauty
of the scene, which soon extorted admiration from all
in the balcony.

" Mais, c'est charmant /" exclaimed Mademoiselle
Viefville, who was enchanted at discovering something
like gaiety and pleasure among the "tristesJlmericains"
and who had never even suspected them of being
capable of so much apparent enjoyment.

" These are the prettiest village sports I have ever
witnessed," said Eve, " though a little dangerous, one
would thirrk. There is something refreshing, as the
magazine writers term it, to find one of these miniature
towns of ours condescending to be gay and happy in
a village fashion. If I were to bring my strongest
objection to American country life, it would be its am
bitious desire to ape the towns, converting the ease
and abandon of a village, into the formality and stiff
ness that render children in the clothes of grown peo
ple so absurdly ludicrous."

" What !" exclaimed John Effingham ; " do you
fancy it possible to reduce a free-man so low, as to
deprive him of his stilts ! No, no, young lady ; you
are now in a country where if you have two rows of
flounces on your frock, your maid will make it a point
to have three, by way of maintaining the equilibrium.
This is the noble ambition of liberty."

" Annette's foible is a love of flounces, cousin Jack,
and you have drawn that image from your eye, instead
I

HOME AS FOU1\TD. Ill

of your imagination. It is a French, as well as an
American ambition, if ambition it be."

" Let it be drawn whence it may, it is true. Have
you not remarked, Sir George Templemore, that the
Americans will not even bear the ascendency of a
capital ? Formerly, Philadelphia, then the largest town
in the country, was the political capital ; but it was too
much for any one community to enjoy the united con
sideration that belongs to extent and'politics ; and so
the honest public went to work to make a capital, that
should have nothing else in its favour, but the naked
fact that it was the seat of government, and I think it
will be generally allowed, that thev have succeeded to
admiration. I fancy Mr. Dodge will admit that it
would be quite intolerable, that country should not be
town, and town country."

" This is a land of equal rights, Mr. John Effingham,
and I confess that I see no claims that New-York
possesses, which does not equally belong to Templeton."

" Do you hold, sir," inquired Captain Truck, " that
a ship is a brig, and a brig a ship."

" The case is different ; Templeton is a town, is it
not, Mr. John Effingham ?"

" A town, Mr. Dodge, but not town. The difference
is essential."

"I do not see it, sir. Now, New- York, to my
notion is not a town, but a city."

" Ah ! This is the critical acumen of the editor !
But you should be indulgent, Mr. Dodge, to us laymen,
who pick up our phrases by merely wandering about
the world ; or in the nursery perhaps, while you, of the
favoured few, by living in the condensation of a pro
vince, obtain a precision and accuracy to which we
can lay no claim."

The darkness prevented the editor of the Active In
quirer from detecting the genera/ smile, and he re
mained in happy ignorance of the feeling that produced
:t To say the truth, not the smallest of the besetting

112 HOME AS FOUND.

vices of Mr. Dodge had their foundation in a provin-
cial education, and in provincial notions ; the invariable
tendency of both being to persuade their subject that
he is always right, while all opposed to him in opinion
are wrong. That well-known line of Pope, in which
the poet asks, " wrhat can we reason, but from what
we know V contains the principle of half our foibles
and faults, and perhaps explains fully that proportion
of those of Mr. Dodge, to say nothing of those of no
small number of his countrymen. There are limits to
the knowledge, and tastes, and habits of every man,
and, as each is regulated by the opportunities of the
individual, it follows of necessity, that no one can have
a standard much above his own experience. That
an isolated and remote people should be a provincial
people, or, in other \vords, a people of narrow and
peculiar practices and opinions, is as unavoidable as
that study should make a scholar ; though in the case
of America, the great motive for surprise is to be found
in the fact that causes so very obvious should produce
so little effect. When compared with the bulk of
other nations, the Americans, though so remote and
insulated, are scarcely provincial, for it is only when
the highest standard of this nation is compared with
the highest standard of other nations, that we detect
the great deficiency that actually exists. That a moral
foundation so broad should uphold a moral superstruc
ture so narrow, is owing to the circumstance that the
popular sentiment rules, and as every thing is referred
to a body of judges that, in the nature of things, must
be of very limited and superficial attainments, it can
not be a matter of wonder to the reflecting, that the
decision shares in the qualities of the tribunal. In
America, the gross mistake has been made of suppo
sing, that, because the mass rules in a political sense,
it has a right to be listened to and obeyed in all other
matters, a practical deduction that can only lead, under
the most favourable exercise of power, to a very hum-

HOME AS FOUND. 113

ble mediocrity. It is to be hoped, that time, and a
greater concentration of taste, liberality, and know
ledge than can well distinguish a young and scattered
population, will repair this evil, and that our children
will reap the harvest of the broad fields of intelligence
that have been- sowed by ourselves. In the mean
time, the present generation must endure that which
cannot easily be cured ; and, among its other evils, it
will have to submit to a great deal of very question
able information, not a few false principles, and an un
pleasant degree of intolerant and narrow bigotry,
that are propagated by such apostles of liberty and
learning as Steadfast Dodge, Esquire.

We have written in vain, if it now be necessary to
point out a multitude of things in which that professed
instructor and Mentor of the public, the editor of the
Active Inquirer, had made a false estimate of himself,
as well as of his fellow-creatures. That such a man
should be ignorant, is to be expected, as he had never
been instructed ; that he was self-sufficient was owing
to his ignorance, which oftener induces vanity than
modesty ; that he was intolerant and bigoted, follows
as a legitimate effect of his provincial and contracted
habits; that he was a hypocrite, came from his ho
mage of the people; and that one thus constituted,
should be permitted, periodically, to pour out his va
pidity, folly, malice, envy, and ignorance, on his fellow-
creatures, in the columns of a newspaper, was owing
to a state of society in which the truth of the whole
some adage " that what is every man's business is no
body's business," is exemplified not only daily, but
hourly, in a hundred other interests of equal magni
tude, as well as to a capital mistake, that leads the
community to fancy that whatever is done in their
name, is done for their good.

As the " Fun of Fire" had, by this time, exhibited
most of its beauties, the party belonging to the Wig
wam left the balcony, and, the evening proving mild,
10*

114 HOME AS FOUND.

they walked into the grounds of the building, where
they naturally broke into groups, conversing on the
incidents of the day, or of such other matters as came
uppermost. Occasionally, gleams of light were thrown
across them from a fire-ball ; or a rocket's starry train
was still seen drawn in the air, resembling the wake
of a ship at night, as it wades through the ocean.

CHAPTER VIII.

Gentle Octavia,

Let your best love draw to that point, which seeks
But to preserve it.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

WE shall not say it was an accident that brought
Paul and Eve side by side, and a little separated from
the others ; for a secret sympathy had certainly exer
cised its influence over both, and probably contributed
as much as any thing else towards bringing about the
circumstance. Although the Wigwam stood in the
centre of the village, its grounds covered several acres,
and were intersected with winding walks, and orna
mented with shrubbery, in the well-known English
style, improvements also of John Effingham ; for, while
the climate and forests of America offer so many in
ducements to encourage landscape gardening, it is the
branch of art that, of all the other ornamental arts, is
perhaps the least known in this country. It is true,
time had not yet brought the labours of the projector to
perfection, in this instance ; but enough had been done
to afford very extensive, varied, and pleasing walks.
The grounds were broken, and John Effingham had
turned the irregularities to good account, by planting
and leading paths among them, to the great amuse
ment of the lookers-on, however, who, like true disci-

HOME AS FOUND. 115

pies of the Manhattanese economy, had already begun
to calculate the cost of what they termed grading the
lawns, it being with them as much a matter of course
to bring pleasure grounds down to a mathematical sur
face, as to bring a rail-road route down to the proper
level.

Through these paths, and among the irregularities,
groves, and shrubberies, just mentioned, the party be
gan to stroll ; one group taking a direction eastward,
another south, and a third westward, in a way soon to
break them up into five or six different divisions.
These several portions of the company ere long got
to move in opposite directions, by taking the various
paths, and while they frequently met, they did not
often re-unite. As has been already intimated, Eve
and Paul were alone, for the first time in their lives,
under circumstances that admitted of an uninterrupted
confidential conversation. Instead of profiting imme
diately, however, by this unusual occurrence, as many
of our readers may anticipate, the young man con
tinued the discourse, in which the whole party had
been engaged when they entered the gate that commu
nicated with the street.

" I know not whether you felt the same embarrass
ment as myself, to-day, Miss Effingham," he said,
" when the orator was dilating on the glories of the re
public, and on the high honours that accompany the
American name. Certainly, though a pretty extensive
traveller, I have never yet been able to discover that
it is any advantage abroad to be one of the ' fourteen
millions of freemen.'"

" Are we to attribute the mystery that so long hung
over your birth-place, to this fact," Eve asked, a little
pointedly.

" If I have made any seeming mystery, as to the
place of my birth, it has been involuntary on my part,
Miss Effingharn, so far as you, at least, have been
eoncern^. I may not have thought myself authorized

116 HOME AS FOUtfD.

to introduce my own history into our little discussions,
but I am not conscious of aiming at any unusual con
cealments. At Vienna, and in Switzerland, we met
as travellers ; and now that you appear disposed to ac
cuse me of concealment, I may retort, and say that,
neither you nor your father ever expressly stated in
my presence that you were Americans."

" Was that necessary, Mr. Powis ?"

"Perhaps not; and I am wrong to draw a com
parison between my own insignificance, and the eclat
that attended you and your movements."

"Nay," interrupted Eve, "do not misconceive me.
My father felt an interest in you, quite naturally, after
wiiat had occurred on the lake of Lucerne, and I be
lieve he was desirous of making you out a country
man, — a pleasure that he has at length received."

" To own the truth, I was never quite certain, until
my last visit to England, on which side of the At
lantic I was actually born, and to this uncertainty,
perhaps, may be attributed some of that cosmopolitism
to which I made so many high pretensions in our late
passage."

" Not know where you were born !" exclaimed Eve,
with an involuntary haste, that she immediately re
pented.

" This, no doubt, sounds odd to you, Miss Effing-
ham, who have always been the pride and solace of a
most affectionate father, but it has never been my good
fortune to know either parent. My mother, who wras
the sister of Ducie's mother, died at my birth, and the
loss of my father even preceded hers. I may be said
to have been born an orphan."

Eve, for the first time in her life, had taken his arm,
and the young man felt the gentle pressure of her
little hand, as she permitted this expression of sym
pathy to escape her, at a moment she found so in
tensely interesting to herself.

"It was, indeed, a misfortune, Mr. Powis, and I fear

HOME AS FOUND. 117

you were put into the navy through the want of those
who would feel a natural concern in your welfare."

" The navy was my own choice ;* partly, I think,
fi om a certain love of adventure, and quite as much,
perhaps, with a wish to settle the question of my birth
place, practically at least, by enlisting in the service
of the one that I first knew, and certainly best loved."

" But of that birth-place, I understand there is now
no doubt ?" said Eve, with more interest than she was
herself conscious of betraying.

" None whatever ; I am a native of Philadelphia ;
that point was conclusively settled in my late visit to
my aunt, Lady Dunluce, who was present at my birth."

" Is Lady Dunluce also an American ?"

" She is ; never having quitted the country until after
her marriage to Colonel Ducie. She was a younger
sister of my mother's, and, notwithstanding some jea
lousies and a little coldness that I trust have now dis
appeared, I am of opinion she loved her; though one
can hardly answer for the durability of the family ties
in a country where the institutions and habits are as
artificial as in England."

" Do you think there is less family affection, then, in
England than in America ?"

" I will not exactly say as much, though I am of
opinion that neither country is remarkable in that way.
In England, among the higher classes, it is impossible
that the feelings should not be weakened by so many
adverse interests. When a brother knows that nothing
stands between himself and rank and wealth, but the
claims of one who was born a twelvemonth earlier
than himself, he gets to feel more like a rival than a
kinsman, and the temptation to envy or dislike, or even
hatred, sometimes becomes stronger than the duty to
love."

" And yet the English, themselves, say that the ser
vices rendered by the elder to the younger brother,
and the gratitude of the younger to the elder, are so
many additional ties."

118 HOME AS FOUND.

" It would be contrary to all the known laws of feel
ing, and all experience, if this were so. The younger
applies to the elder for aid in preference to a stranger,
because he thinks he has a claim ; and what man who
fancies he has a claim, is disposed to believe justice is
fully done him ; or who that is required to discharge a
duty, imagines he has not done more than could be
properly asked?"

" I fear your opinion of men is none of the best, Mr.
Powis!"

" There may be exceptions, but such I believe to be
the common fate of humanity. The moment a duty
is created, a disposition to think it easily discharged
follows ; and of all sentiments, that of a continued and
exacting gratitude is the most oppressive. I fear more
brothers are aided, through family pride, than through
natural affection."

" What, then, loosens the tie among ourselves, where
no law of primogeniture exists ?"
* " That which loosens every thing. A love of change
that has grown up with the migratory habits of the
people ; and which, perhaps, is, in some measure, fos
tered by the institutions. Here is Mr. Bragg to con-
*irm what I say, and we may hear his sentiments on
this subject."

As Aristabulus, with whom walked Mr. Dodge, just
at that moment came out of the shrubbery, and took
the same direction with themselves, Powis put the
question, as one addresses an acquaintance in a room.

" Rotation in feelings, sir," returned Mr. Bragg, " is
human nature, as rotation in office is natural justice.
Some of our people are of opinion that it might be
useful could the whole of society be made periodically
to change places, in order that every one might know
how his neighbour lives."

" You are, then, an Agrarian, Mr. Bragg ?"

" As far from it as possible ; nor do I believe you
will find such an animal in this county. Where

HOME AS FOUND. 110

property is concerned, we are a people that never let
go, as long as \ve can hold on, sir ; but, beyond this,
we like lively changes. Now, Miss Eifingham, every
body thinks frequent changes of religious instructors,
in particular, necessary. There can be no vital piety
without keeping the flarne alive with excitement."

"I confess, sir, that my own reasoning would lead
to a directly contrary conclusion, and that there can
be no vital piety, as you term it, with excitement."

Mr. Bragg looked at Mr. Dodge, and Mr. Dodge
looked at Mr. Bragg. Then each shrugged his shoul
ders, and the former continued the discourse.

" That may be the case in France, Miss Effingham,"
he said, " but, in America, we look to excitement as
the great purifier. We should as soon expect the air
in the bottom of a well to be elastic, as that the moral
atmosphere shall be clear and salutary, without the
breezes of excitement. For my part, Mr. Dodge, I
think no man should be a judge, in the same court,
more than ten years at a time, and a priest gets to be
rather common-place and flat after five. There are
men that may hold out a little longer, I acknowledge ;
but to keep real, vital, soul-saving regeneration stir
ring, a change should take place as often as once in
five years, in a parish; that is my opinion, at least."

" But, sir," rejoined Eve, " as the laws of religion
are immutable, the modes by which it is known uni
versal, and the promises, mediation, and obligations
are every where the same, I do not see what you pro
pose to gain by so many changes."

" Why, Miss Effingham, we change the dishes at
table, and no family of my acquaintance, more than
this of your honourable father's ; and I am surprised
to find you opposed to the system."

" Our religion, sir," answered Eve, gravely, " is a
duty, and rests on revelation and obedience ; while our
diet may, very innocently, be a matter of mere taste,
or even of caprice, if you will."

120 HOME AS FOUND.

" Well, I confess I see no great difference, the main
object in this life being to stir people up, and to go
ahead. I presume you know, Miss Eve, that many
people think that we ought to change our own parson,
if we expect a blessing on the congregation."

" I should sooner expect a curse would follow an
act of so much heartlessness, sir. Our clergyman has
been with us since his entrance into the duties of his
holy office, and it will be difficult to suppose that the
Divine favour would follow the commission of so self
ish and capricious a step, with a motive no better than
the desire for novelty."

" You quite mistake the object, Miss Eve, which is
to stir the people up ; a hopeless thing, I fear, so long
as they always sit under the same preaching."

" I have been taught to believe that piety is increased,
Mr. Bragg, by the aid of the Holy Spirit's sustaining
and supporting us in our good desires ; and I cannot
persuade myself that the Deity finds it necessary to
save a soul, by the means of any of those human
agencies by which men sack towns, turn an election,
or incite a mob. I hear that extraordinary scenes are
witnessed in this country, in some of the other sects ;
but I trust never to see the day, when the apostolic,
reverend, and sober church, in which I have been nur
tured, shall attempt to advance the workings of that
Divine power, by a profane, human hurrah."

All this was Greek to Messrs. Dodge and Bragg,
who, in furthering their objects, were so accustomed
to " stirring people up," that they had quite forgotten
that the more a man was in " an excitement," the less
he had to do with reason. The exaggerated religious
sects, which first peopled America, have had a strong
influence in transmitting to their posterity false notions
on such subjects ; for while the old world is accustomed
to see Christianity used as an ally of government, and
perverted from its one great end to be the instrument
of ambition, cupidity, and selfishness, the new world

HOME AS FOUND. 121

has been fated to witness the reaction of such abuses,
and to run into nearly as many errors in the opposite
extreme. The two persons just mentioned, had been
educated in the provincial school of religious notions,
that is so much in favour, in a portion of this country ;
and they were striking examples of the truth of the
adage, that " what is bred in the bone will be seen in
the flesh," for their common character, common in this
particular at least, was a queer mixture of the most
narrow superstitions and prejudices, that existed under
the garb of religious training, and of unjustifiable
frauds, meannesses, and even vices. Mr. Bragg was
a better man than Mr. Dodge, for he had more self-
reliance, and was more manly ; but, on the score of re
ligion, he had the same contradictory excesses, and
there was a common point, in the way of vulgar vice,
towards which each tended, simply for the want of
breeding and tastes, as infallibly as the needle points
to the pole. Cards were often introduced in Mr.
Effingham's drawing-room, and there was one apart
ment expressly devoted to a billiard-table ; and many
was the secret fling, and biting gibe, that these pious
devotees passed between themselves, on the subject of
so flagrant an instance of immorality, in a family of
so high moral pretensions ; the two worthies not unfre-
quently concluding their comments by repairing to
some secret room in a tavern, where, after carefully
locking the door, and drawing the curtains, they would
order brandy, and pass a refreshing hour in endeavour
ing to relieve each other of the labour of carrying
their odd sixpences, by means of little shoemaker's
loo.

On the present occasion, however, the earnestness
of Eve produced a pacifying effect on their consciences,
for, as our heroine never raised her swreet voice above
the tones of a gentlewoman, its very mildness and soft
ness gave force to her expressions. Had JohnEffingham
uttered the sentiments to which they had just listened,

VOL. II. 11

122 HOME AS FOUND.

it is probable Mr. Bragg would have attempted an an
swer ; but, under the circumstances, he preferred mak
ing his bow, and diverging into the first path that
offered, followed by his companion. Eve and Paul
continued their circuit of the grounds, as if no inter
ruption had taken place.

" This disposition to change is getting to be univer
sal in the country," remarked the latter, as soon as
. Aristabulus and his friend had left them, " and I consi
der it one of the worst signs of the times ; more espcf-
cially since it has become so common to connect it
with what it is the fashion to call excitement."

"To return to the subject which these gentlemen
interrupted," said Eve, " that of the family ties ; I have
always heard England quoted as one of the strongest
instances of a nation in which this tie is slight, beyond
its aristocratical influence ; and I should be sorry to
suppose that we are following in the footsteps of our
good-mother, in this respect at least."

" Has Mademoiselle Viefville never made any remark
on this subject ?"

" Mademoiselle Viefville, though observant, is dis
creet. That she believes the standard of the affections
as high in this as in her own country, I do not think ;
for, like most Europeans, she believes the Americans
to be a passionless people, who are more bound up in
the interests of gain, than in any other of the concerns
of life."

" She does not know us !" said Paul so earnestly as
to cause Eve to start at the deep energy with which
he spoke. " The passions lie as deep, and run in cur
rents as strong here, as in any other part of the world,
though, there not being as many factitious causes to
dam them, they less seldom break through the bounds
of propriety."

For near a minute the twro paced the walk in silence,
and Eve began to wish that some one of the party
would again join them, that a conversation which she

HOME AS FOUND. 123

felt was getting to be awkward, might be interrupted
But no one crossed their path again, and without rude-
ness, or affectation, she saw no means of effecting her
object. Paul was too much occupied with his own
feelings to observe his companion's embarrassment,
and, after the short pause mentioned, he naturally pur
sued the subject, though in a less emphatic manner
than before.

" It was an old, and a favourite theory, with the Eu
ropeans," he said, with a sort of bitter irony, "that all
the animals of this hemisphere have less gifted natures
than those of the other ; nor is it a theory of which
they are yet entirely rid. The Indian was supposed
to be passionless, because he had self-command ; and
what in the European would be thought exhibiting the
feelings of a noble nature, in him has been represented
as ferocity and revenge. Miss Effingham, you and I
have seen Europe, have stood in the presence of its
wisest, its noblest and its best ; and what have they to
boast beyond the immediate results of their factitious
and laboured political systems, tha.t is denied to the
American — or rather would be denied to the Ameri
can, had the latter the manliness and mental indepen
dence, to be equal to his fortunes ?"

" Which, you think he is not."

" How can a people be even independent that im
ports its thoughts, as it does its wares, — that has not
the spirit to invent even its own prejudices?"

" Something should be allowed to habit, and to the
influence of time. England, herself, probably has in
herited some of her false notions, from the Saxons and
Normans."

" That is not only possible, but probable ; but En
gland, in thinking of Russia, France, Turkey, or Egypt,
when induced to think wrong, yields to an English,
and not to an American interest. Her errors are at
least requited, in a degree, by serving her own ends,
whereas ours are made, too often, to oppose our most

124 HOME AS FOUND.

obvious interests. We are never independent unless
when stimulated by some strong and pressing moneyed
concern, and not often then beyond the plainest of its
effects. Here is one, apparently, who does not be
long to our party."

Paul interrupted himself, in consequence of their
meeting a stranger in the walk, who moved with the
indecision of one uncertain whether to advance or to
recede. Rockets frequently fell into the grounds, and
there had been one or two inroads of boys, which had
been tolerated on account of the occasion; but this
intruder was a man in the decline of life, of the con
dition of a warm tradesman seemingly, and he clearly
had no connection with sky-rockets, as his eyes were
turned inquiringly on the persons of those who passed
him, from time to time, none of whom had he stopped,
however, until he now placed himself before Paul and
Eve, in a way to denote a desire to speak.

"The young people are making a merry night of it,"
he said, keeping a hand in each coat-pocket, while he
unceremoniously occupied the centre of the narrow
walk, as if determined to compel a parley.

Although sufficiently acquainted with the unceremo
nious habits of the people of the country to feel no
surprise at this intrusion, Paul was vexed at having
his tete a tete with Eve so rudely broken ; and he an
swered with more of the hauteur of the quarter-deck,
than he might otherwise have done, by saying coldly —

" Perhaps, sir, it is your wish to see Mr. Effingham
— or — " hesitating an instant, as he scanned the stran
ger's appearance — " some of his people. The first
will soon pass this spot, and you will find most of the
latter on the lawn, watching the rockets."

The man regarded Paul a moment, and then he re
moved his hat respectfully.

" Please, .sir, can you inform me if a gentleman
called Captain Truck — one that sails the packets be«
tween New-York and England, is staying at the Wig.
warn at present."

HOME AS FOUiVD. 125

Paul told him that the captain was walking with
Mr. Effingham, and that the next pair that ap
proached would be they. The stranger fell back,
keeping his hat respectfully in his hand, and the two
passed.

" That man has been an English servant, but has
been a little spoiled by the reaction of an excessive
liberty to do as he pleases. The "please, sir," and the
attitude can hardly be mistaken, while the nonchalance
of his manner " a nous aborder" sufficiently betrays
the second edition of his education."

" I am curious to know what this person can want
with our excellent captain — it can scarcely be one of
the Montauk's crew !"

" I will answer for it, that the fellow has not enough
seamanship about him to whip a rope," said Paul,
laughing ; " for if there be two temporal pursuits that
have less affinity than any two others, they are those
of the pantry and the tar-bucket. I think it will be
seen that this man has been an English servant, and
he has probably been, a passenger on board some ship
commanded by our honest old friend."

Eve and Paul now turned, and they met Mr. Effing-
ham and the captain just as the two latter reached the
spot where the stranger still stood.

" This is Captain Truck, the gentleman for whom
you inquired," said Paul.

The stranger looked hard at the captain, and the
captain looked hard at the stranger, the obscurity
rendering a pretty close scrutiny necessary, to enable
either to distinguish features. The examination seemed
to be mutually unsatisfactory, for each retired a little,
like a man who had not found a face that he knew.

" There must be two Captain Trucks, then, in the
trade," said the stranger ; " this is not the gentleman
I used to know."

" I think you are as right in the latter part of your
remark, friend, as you are wrong in the first," returned
11*

126 HOME AS FOUND.

the captain. " Know you, I do not, and yet there are
no more two Captain Trucks in the English trade, than
there are two Miss Eve Effingharns, or two Mrs. Haw
kers in the universe. I am John Truck, and no othei
man of that name ever sailed a. ship between New
York and England, in my day, at least."

"Did you ever command the Dawn, sir?"

" The'Dawn ! That I did ; and the Regulus, and the
Manhattan, and the Wilful Girl, and the Deborah-An
gelina, and the Sukey and Katy, which, my dear
young lady, I may say, was my first love. She was
only a fore-and-after, carrying no standing topsail,
even, and we named her after two of the river girls,
who were flyers, in their way ; at least, I thought so
then ; though a man by sailing a packet comes to alter
his notions about men and things, or, for that matter,
about women and things, too. I got into a category,
in that schooner, that I never expect to see equalled ;
for I was driven ashore to windward in her, which is
gibberish to you, my dear young lady, but which Mr.
Powis will very well understand, though he may not
be able to explain it."

" I certainly know what you mean," said Paul,
" though I confess I am in a category, as well as the
schooner, so far as knowing how it could have hap
pened."

" The Sukey and Katy ran away with me, that 's
the upshot of it. Since that time I have never con
sented to command a vessel that was called after two
of our river young women, for I do believe that one
of them is as much as a common mariner can manage.
You see, Mr. Effingham, we were running along a wea
ther-shore, as close in as we could get, to be in the
eddy, when a squall struck her a-beam, and she luffed
right on to the beach. No helping it. Helm hard up,
peak down, head sheets to windward, and main sheet
flying, but it was all too late ; away she went plump
ashore to windward. But for that accident, I think I
might have married."

HOME AS FOUND. 127

" And what connexion could you find between ma
trimony and this accident, captain?' demanded the
laughing Eve.

" There was an admonition in it, my dear young
lady, that I thought was not to be disregarded. I
tried the Wilful Girl next, and she was thrown on her
beam-ends with me ; after which I renounced all female
names, and took to the Egyptian."

" The Egyptian !"

" Certainly, Regulus, who was a great snake-killer,
they tell me, in that part of the world* But I never
saw my way quite clear as bachelor, until I got the
Dawn. Did you know that ship, friend?"

" I believe, sir, I made two passages in her while
you commanded her."

"Nothing more likely; we carried lots of your
countrymen, though mostly forward of the gangways.
I commanded the Dawn more than twenty years ago."

" It is all of that time since I crossed with you, sir ;
you may remember that we fell in with a wreck, ten
days after we sailed, and took off her crew and two
passengers. Three or four of the latter" had died with
their sufferings, and several of the people."

" All this seems but as yesterday ! The wreck was
a Charleston ship, that had started a butt."

" Yes, sir — yes, sir — that is just it — she had started,
but could not get in. That is just what they said at
the time. I am David, sir — I should think you can
not have forgotten David."

The honest captain was very willing to gratify the
other's harmless self-importance, though, to tell the
truth, he retained no more personal knowledge of
the David of the Dawn, than he had of David, King
of the Jews.

" Oh, David !" he cried, cordially — " are you David ?
Well, I did not expect to see you again in this world
though I never doubted where we should be, hereafter.
I hope you are very well, David ; what sort of wea-

128 HOME AS FOUND.

ther have you made of it since we parted ? If I re«
collect aright, you worked your passage ; — never at
sea before."

" I beg your pardon, sir ; I never was at sea before
the first time, it is true ; but I did not belong to the
crew. I was a passenger."

" I remember, now, you were in the steerage,"
returned the captain, who saw daylight ahead.

" Not at all, sir, but in the cabin."

" Cabin !" echoed the captain, who perceived none
of the requisites of a cabin-passenger in the other —
"Oh! I understand, in the pantry?"

" Exactly so, sir. You may remember my master —
he had the left-hand state-room to himself, and I slept
next to the scuttle-butt. You recollect master, sir?"

" Out of doubt, and a very good fellow he was. I
hope you live with him still ?"

" Lord bless you, sir, he is dead !"

" Oh ! I recollect hearing of it, at the time. Well,
David, I hope if ever we cross again, we shall be
ship-mates once more. We were beginners, then, but
we have ships worth living in, now. — Good night."

" Do you remember Dowse, sir, that we got from
the wreck ?" continued the other, unwilling to give up
his gossip so soon. " He was a dark man, that had
had the small-pox badly. I think, sir, you will recol
lect him, for he was a hard man in other particulars,
besides his countenance."

" Somewhat flinty about the soul ; I remember the
man well ; and so, David, good night ; you will come and
see me, if you are ever in town. Good night, David."

David was now compelled to leave the place, for
Captain Truck, who perceived that the whole $arty
\vas getting together again, in consequence of the halt,
felt the propriety of dismissing his visiter, of whom,
his master, and Dowse, he retained just as much recol
lection as one retains of a common stage-coach com
panion after twenty years. The appearance of Mr

HOME AS FOUND. 129

Howel, who just at that moment approached them,
aided the manoeuvre, and, in a few minutes the differ
ent groups were again in motion, though some slight
changes had taken place in the distribution of the par-

o
ties.

CHAPTER IX.

" How silver sweet sound lovers' tongues at night,
Like softest music to attending ears !"

ROMEO AND JULIET.

"A POOR matter, this of the fire-works," said Mr.
Howel, who, with an old bachelor's want of tact, had
joined Eve and Paul in their walk. "The English
would laugh at them famously, I dare say. Have you
heard Sir George allude to them at all, Miss Eve?"

" It would be great affectation for an Englishman to
deride the fire-works of any dry climate," said Eve
laughing ; " and I dare say, if Sir George Templemore
has been silent on the subject, it is because he is con
scious he knows little about it."

" Well, that is odd ! I should think England the very
first country in the world for fire-works. I hear, Miss
Eve, that, on the whole, the baronet is rather pleased
with us ; and I must say that he is getting to be very
popular in Ternpleton."

" Nothing is easier than for an Englishman to become
popular in America," observed Paul, " especially if his
condition in life be above that of the vulgar. He has
only to declare himself pleased with America ; or, to
be sincerely hated, to declare himself displeased."

" And in what does America differ from any other
country, in this respect ?" asked Eve, quickly.

" Not much, certainly ; love induces love, and dis

130 HOME AS FOUND.

like, dislike. There is nothing new in all this ; but the
people of other countries, having more confidence in
themselves, do not so sensitively inquire what others
think of them. I believe this contains the whole dif
ference."

" But Sir George does rather like us?" inquired Mr.
Howel, with interest.

" He likes some of us particularly well," returned
Eve. "Do you not know that my cousin Grace is to
become Mrs. — I beg her pardon — Lady Templemore,
very shortly V

" Good God ! — Is that possible — Lady Templemore !
— Lady Grace Templemore !"

" Not Lady Grace Templemore, but Grace, Lady
Templemore, and graceful Lady Templemore in the
bargain."

" And this honour, my dear Miss Eve, they tell me
you refused !"

" They tell you wrong then, sir," answered the young
lady, a little startled with the suddenness and brusque-
rie of the remark, and yet prompt to do justice to all
concerned. " Sir George Templemore never did me
the honour to propose to me, or for me, and conse
quently he could not be refused."

" It is very extraordinary ! — I hear you were actually
acquainted in Europe ?"

" We were, Mr. Howel, actually acquainted in Eu
rope, but I knew hundreds of persons in Europe, who
have never dreamed of asking me to marry them."

" This is very strange — quite unlooked for — to
marry Miss Van Cortlandt ! Is Mr. John Effingham
in the grounds'?"

Eve made no answer, but Paul hurriedly observed —

" You will find him in the next walk, I think, by
returning a short distance, and taking the first path
to the left."

Mr. Howel did as told, and was soon out of sight.

" That is a most earnest believer in English superi-

HOME AS FOUND. 131

ority, and, one may say, by his strong desire to give
you an English husband, Miss Effingham, in English
merit.' '

" It is the weak spot in the character of a very ho
nest man. They tell me such instances were much
more frequent in this country thirty years since, than
they are to-day."

" I can easily believe it, for I think I remember some
characters of the sort, myself. I have heard those who
are older than I am, draw a distinction like this be
tween the state of feeling that prevailed forty years
ago, and that which prevails to-day ; they say that,
formerly, England absolutely and despotically thought
for America, in all but those cases in w7hich the inte
rests of the two nations conflicted ; and I have even
heard competent judges affirm, that so powerful was
the influence of habit, and so successful the schemes
of the political managers of the mother country, that
even many of those who fought for the independence of
America, actually doubted of the propriety of their
acts, as Luther is known to have had fits of despon
dency concerning the justness of the reformation he was
producing ; while, latterly, the leaning towards Eng
land is less the result of a simple mental dependence, —
though of that there still remains a disgraceful amount
— than of calculation, and a desire in a certain class to
defeat the dominion of the mass, and to establish that
of a few in its stead."

" It would, indeed, be a strange consummation of
the history of this country, to find it becoming mo
narchical !"

" There are a few monarchists no doubt springing
up in the country, though almost entirely in a class
that only knows the world through the imagination and
by means of books; but the disposition, in our time, is
to aristocracy, and not to monarchy. Most men that
get to be rich, discover that they are no happier for
their possessions ; perhaps every man who has not been

132 HOME AS Fourn?.

trained and prepared to use his means properly, is in
this category, as our friend the captain would call it,
and then they begin to long for some other untried ad
vantages. The example of the rest of the world is
before our own wealthy, and, faute cTimaginatum,
they imitate because they cannot invent. Exclusive
political power is also a great ally in the accumulation
of money, and a portion have the sagacity to see it ;
though I suspect more pine for the vanities of the ex
clusive classes, than for the substance. Your sex, Miss
Effingham, as a whole, is not above this latter weak
ness, as I think you must have observed in your inter
course with those you met abroad."

" I met with some instances of weakness, in this
way," said Eve, with reserve, and with the pride of a
woman, "though not more, I think, than among the
men ; and seldom, in either case, among those whom
we are accustomed to consider people of condition at
home. The self-respect and the habits of the latter,
generally preserved them from betraying this feeble
ness of character, if indeed they felt it."

" The Americans abroad may be divided into two
great classes ; those who go for improvement in
the sciences or the arts, and those who go for mere
amusement. As a whole, the former have struck me
as being singularly respectable, equally removed from
an apish servility and a swaggering pretension of su
periority ; \vhile, I fear, a majority of the latter have a
disagreeable direction towards the vanities."

" I will not affirm the contrary," said Eve, " for fri
volity and pleasure are only too closely associated in
ordinary minds. The number of those who prize the
elegancies of life, for their intrinsic value, is every
where small, I should think ; and I question if Europe
is much better oft" than ourselves, in this respect."

** This may be true, and yet one can only regret
that, in a case where so much depends on example,
the tone of pur people was not more assimilated

HOME AS TOUJfD. 133

lo their facts. I do not know whether you were struck
with the same peculiarity, but, whenever I felt in the
mood to hear high monarchical and aristocratical doc
trines blindly promulgated, I used to go to the nearest
American Legation."

" I have heard this fact commented on," Eve
answered, " and even by foreigners, and I confess it
has always struck me as singular. Why should the
agent of a republic make a parade of his anti-repub
lican sentiments?"

" That there are exceptions, I will allow ; but, after
the experience of many years, I honestly think that
such is the rule. I might distrust my own opinion, or
my own knowledge ; but others, with opportunities
equal to my own, have come to the same conclusion.
I have just received a letter from Europe, complaining
that an American Envoy Extraordinary, who would
as soon think of denouncing himself, as utter the same
sentiments openly at home, has given an opinion
against the utility of the vote by ballot ; and this, too,
under circumstances that might naturally be thought
to produce a practical effect."

" Tant pis. To me all this is inexplicable !"

" It has its solution, Miss Effingham, like any other
problem. In ordinary times, extraordinary men sel
dom become prominent, power passing into the hands
of clever managers. Now, the very vanity, and the
petty desires, that betray themselves in glittering uni
forms, puerile affectations, and feeble imitations of
other systems, probably induce more than half of those
who fill the foreign missions to apply for them, and it
is no more than we ought to expect that the real dis
position should betray itself, when there was no longer
any necessity for hypocrisy."

" But I should think this necessity for hypocrisy
would never cease ! Can it be possible that a people,
as much attached to their institutions as the great

VOL. II. 12

334 HOME AS FOUND.

mass of the American nation is known to be, will tole
rate such a base abandonment of all they cherish!"

" How are they to know any thing about it ? It ia
a startling fact, that there is a man at this instant, who
has not a single claim to such a confidence, either in
the way of mind, principles, manners, or attainments,
filling a public trust abroad, who, on all occasions
except those which he thinks will come directly before
the American people, not only proclaims himself
opposed to the great principles of the institutions,
but who, in a recent controversy with a foreign na
tion, actually took sides against his own country,
informing that of the opposing nation, that the ad
ministration at home would not be supported by the
legislative part of the government !"

"And why is not this publicly exposed?"

" Cui bono ! The presses that have no direct inte
rest in the matter, would treat the affair with indif
ference or levity, while a few would mystify the
truth. It is quite impossible for any man in a private
station to make the truth available in any country, in
a matter of public interest ; and those in public stations
seldom or never attempt it, unless they see a direct
party end to be obtained. This is the reason that we
see so much infidelity to the principles of the institu
tions, among the public agents abroad, for they very
well know that no one will be able to expose them.
In addition to this motive, there is so strong a desire
in that portion of the community which is considered
the highest, to effect a radical change in these very
institutions, that infidelity to them, in their eyes, would
be a merit, rather than an offence."

" Surely, surely, other nations are not treated in this
cavalier manner !"

" Certainly not. The foreign agent of a prince, who
should whisper a syllable against his master, would be
recalled with disgrace ; but the servant of the people
is differently situated, since there are so many to be

HOME A3 FOUND. 135

persuaded of his guilt. I could always get along with
all the attacks that the Europeans are so fond of
making on the American system, but those which they
quoted from the mouths of our own diplomatic agents."

" Why do not our travellers expose this?"

" Most of them see too little to know any thing of
it. They dine at a diplomatic table, see a star or two,
fancy themselves obliged, and puff elegancies that have
no existence, except in their own brains. Some think
with the unfaithful, and see no harm in the infidelity.
Others calculate the injury to themselves, and no small
portion would fancy it a greater proof of patriotism to
turn a sentence in favour of the comparative 'ener
gies' and 'superior intelligence' of their own people,
than to point out this or any other disgraceful fact, did
they even possess the opportunities to discover it.
Though no one thinks more highly of these qualities in
the Americans, considered in connexion with practical
things, than myself, no one probably gives them less
credit for their ability to distinguish between appear
ances and reality, in matters of principle."

" It is probable that were we nearer to the rest of
the world, these abuses would not exist, for it is cer
tain they are not so openly practised at home. I am
glad, however, to find that, even while you felt some
uncertainty concerning your own birth-place, you took
so much interest in us, as to identify yourself in feel
ing, at least, with the nation."

" There was one moment when I was really afraid
that the truth would show I was actually born an Eng
lishman "

" Afraid !" interrupted Eve ; " that is a strong word
to apply to so great and glorious a people."

" We cannot always account for our prejudices, and
perhaps this was one of mine ; and, now that I know
that to be an Englishman is not the greatest possible
merit in your eyes, Miss Effingham, it is in no manner
Tessened."

136 HOME AS FOUND.

" In my eyes, Mr. Powis ! I do not remember to
have expressed any partiality for, or any prejudice
against the English : so far as I can speak of my own
feelings, I regard the English the same as any other
foreign people."

" In words you have not certainly ; but acts speak
louder than words."

" You are disposed to be mysterious to-night. What
act of mine has declared pro or con in this important
affair."

" You have at least done what, I fear, few of your
countrywomen would have the moral courage and
self-denial to do, and especially those who are accus
tomed to living abroad — refused to be the wife of an
English baronet of a good estate and respectable
family."

" Mr. Powis," said Eve, gravely, " this is an injus
tice to Sir George Templemore, that my sense of right
will not permit to go uncontradicted, as well as an
injustice to my sex and me. As I told Mr. Howel,
in your presence, that gentleman has never proposed
for me, and of course cannot have been refused. Nor
can I suppose that any American gentlewoman can
deem so paltry a thing as a baronetcy, an inducement
to forget her self-respect."

" I fully appreciate your generous modesty, Miss
Effingham ; but you cannot expect that I, to W7hom
Templemore's admiration gave so much uneasiness,
not to say pain, am to understand you, as Mr. Howel
has probably done, too broadly. Although Sir George
may not have positively proposed, his readiness to do
so, on the least encouragement, was too obvious to be
overlooked by a near observer."

Eve was ready to gasp for breath, so completely by
surprise was she taken, by the calm, earnest, and yet
respectful manner, in which Paul confessed his jealousy.
There was a tremor in his voice, too, usually so clear
and even, that touched her heart, for feeling responds

HOME AS FOUND. 137

^0 feeling, as the echo answers sound, when there ex
ists a real sympathy between the sexes. She felt the
necessity of saying something, and yet they had
walked some distance, ere it was in her power to utter
a syllable.

" I fear my presumption has offended you, Miss Ef-
fingham," said Paul, speaking more like a corrected
child, than the lion-hearted young man he had proved
himself.

There was deep homage in the emotion he betrayed,
and Eve, although she could barely distinguish his
features, was not slow in discovering this proof of the
extent of her power over his feelings.

" Do not call it presumption," she said ; " for, one
who has done so much for us all, can surely claim
some right to take an interest in those he has so well
served. As for Sir George Templemore, you have
probably mistaken the feeling created by our common
adventures for one of more importance. He is warmly
and sincerely attached to my cousin, Grace Van Cort-
landt."

" That he is so now, I fully believe ; but that a very
different magnet first kept him from the Canadas, I am
sure. — We treated each other generously, Miss Effing-
ham, and had no concealments, during that long and
anxious night, when all expected that the day would
dawn on our captivity. Templemore is too manly and
honest to deny his former desire to obtain you for a
wife, and I think even he wrould admit that it depended
entirely on yourself to be so, or not."

" This is an act of self-humiliation that he is not
called on to perform," Eve hurriedly replied ; " such
allusions, now, are worse than useless, and they might
pain my cousin, were she to hear them."

"I am mistaken in my friend' 3 character, if he leave
his betrothed in any doubt, on this subject. Fivo
minutes of perfect frankness now, might obviate years
of distrust, hereafter."

12*

138 HOME AS FOUND.

" And would you, Mr. Powis, avow a for ner weak
ness of this sort, to the woman you had finajy selected
for your wife ?"

'• I ought not to quote myself for authority, for oi
against such a course, since I have never loved but
one, and her with a passion too single and too ardent
ever to admit of competition. Miss Effingham, there
would be something worse than affectation — it would
be trifling with one who is sacred in my eyes, were I
now to refrain from speaking explicitly, although what
I am about to say is forced from me by circumstances,
rather than voluntary, and is almost uttered without
a definite object. Have I your permission to proceed?"

" You can scarcely need a permission, being the
master of your own secrets, Mr. Powis."

Paul, like all men agitated by strong passion, was
inconsistent, and far from just ; and Eve felt the truth
of this, even while her mind was ingeniously framing
excuses for his weaknesses. Still, the impression that
she was about to listen to a declaration that possibly
ought never to be made, weighed upon her, and caused
her to speak with more coldness than she actually felt.
As she continued silent, however, the young man saw
that it had become indispensably necessary to be ex
plicit.

" I shall not detain you, Miss Effingham, perhaps
vex you," he said, "with the history of those early
impressions, which have gradually grown upon me,
until they have become interwoven with my very ex
istence. We met, as you know, at Vienna, for the
first time. An Austrian of rank, to whom I had be
come known through some fortunate circumstances
introduced me into the best society of that capital, in
which I found you the admiration of all who knew
you. My first feeling was that of exultation, at seeing
a young countrywoman — you were then almost a child
Miss Effingham — the greatest attraction of a capita
celebrated for the beauty and grace of its women

HOME AS FOUND. 139

" Your national partialities have made you an unjust
udge towards others, Mr. Powis," Eve interrupted him
y saying, though the earnestness and passion with
which the young man uttered his feelings, made music
to her ears : " what had a young, frightened, half-edu
cated American girl to boast of, when put in competi
tion with the finished women of Austria ?"

" Her surpassing beauty, her unconscious superiority,
her attainments, her trembling simplicity and modesty,
and her meek purity of mind. All these did you pos
sess, not only in rny eyes, but in those of others ; for
these are subjects on which I dwelt too fondly to be
mistaken."

A rocket passed near them at the moment, and,
while both were too much occupied by.the discourse
to heed the interruption, its transient light enabled
Paul to see the flushed cheeks and tearful eyes of Eve,
as the latter were turned on him, in a grateful plea
sure, that his ardent praises extorted from her, in de
spite of all her struggles for self-command.

"We will leave to others this comparison, Mr.
Powis," she said, " and confine ourselves to less doubt
ful subjects."

" If I am then to speak only of that which is beyond
all question, I shall speak chiefly of my long cherished,
devoted, unceasing love. I adored you at Vienna,
Miss Effingham, though it was at a distance, as one
might worship the sun ; for, wrhile your excellent father
admitted me to his society, and I even think honoured
me with some portion of his esteem, I had but little
opportunity to ascertain the value of the jewel that
was contained in so beautiful a casket ; but when we
met the following summer in Switzerland, I first began
truly to love. Then I learned the justness of thought,
the beautiful candour, the perfectly feminine delicacy
of your mind ; and, although I will not say that these
qualities were not enhanced in the eyes of so young a
man, by the extreme beauty of their possessor, I will

140 HOME AS FOUND.

say that, as weighed against each other, I could a
thousand times prefer the former to the latter, unequal
led as the latter almost is, even among your own beau
tiful sex."

" This is presenting flattery in its most seductive
form, Powis."

" Perhaps my incoherent and abrupt manner of ex
plaining myself deserves a rebuke ; though nothing can
be farther from rny intentions than to seem to flatter,
or in any manner to exaggerate. I intend merely to
give a faithful history of the state of my feelings, and
of the progress of my love."

Eve smiled faintly, but very sweetly, as Paul would
have thought, had the obscurity permitted more than
a dim view of her lovely countenance.

" Ought I to listen to such praises, Mr. Powis," she
asked ; " praises which only contribute to a self-esteem
that is too great already ?"

" No one but yourself would say this ; but your ques
tion does, indeed, remind me of the indiscretion that I
have fallen into, by losing that command of my feel
ings, in which I have so long exulted. No man should
make a woman the confidant of his attachment, until
he is fully prepared to accompany the declaration with
an offer of his hand ; — and such is not my condition."

Eve made no dramatic start, assumed no look of
affected surprise, or of wounded dignity ; but she turned
on her lover, her serene eyes, with an expression of
concern so eloquent, and of a wonder so natural, that,
could he have seen it, it would probably have over
come every difficulty on the spot, and produced the
usual offer, notwithstanding the difficulty that he seemed
to think insurmountable.

" And yet," he continued, " I have now said so much,
involuntarily as it has been, that I feel it not only due
to you, but in some measure to myself, to add that the
fondest wish of my heart, the end and aim of all my
day-dreams, as well as of my most sober thoughts for the

HOME AS FOUND. 141

future, centre in the common wish to obtain you for a
wife."

The eye of Eve fell, and the expression of her coun
tenance changed, while a slight but uncontrollable tre
mor ran through her frame. After a short pause, she
summoned all her resolution, and in a voice, the firm
ness of which surprised even herself, she asked —

" Powis, to what does all this tend V1

"Well may you ask that question, Miss Effingham!
You have every right to put it, and the answer, at
least, shall add no further cause of self-reproach. Give
me, I entreat you, but a minute to collect my thoughts,
and I will endeavour to acquit myself of an imperious
duty, in a manner more manly and coherent, than I
fear has been observed for the last ten minutes."

They walked a short distance in profound silence,
Eve still under the influence of astonishment, in which
an uncertain and indefinite dread of, she scarce knew
what, began to mingle ; and Paul, endeavouring to
quiet the tumult that had been so suddenly aroused
within him. The latter then spoke :

" Circumstances have always deprived me of the
happiness of experiencing the tenderness and sympathy
of your sex, Miss Effingham, and have thrown me
more exclusively among the colder and ruder spirits
of my own. My mother died at the time of my birth,
thus cutting me off, at once, from one of the dearest
of earthly ties. I am not certain that I do not ex
aggerate the loss in consequence of the privations I
have suffered ; but, from the hour when I first learned
to feel, I have had a yearning for the tender, patient,
endearing, disinterested love of a mother. You, too,
suffered a similar loss, at an early period, if I have
been correctly informed "

A sob — a stifled, but painful sob, escaped Eve ; and,
inexpressibly shocked, Paul ceased dwelling on his own
sources of sorrow, to attend to those he had so unin
tentionally disturbed.

142 HOME AS FOUND.

" I have been selfish, dearest Miss Effingham," he
exclaimed — "have overtaxed your patience — have
annoyed you with griefs and losses that have no inter
est for you, which can have no interest, with one happy
and blessed as yourself."

" No, no, no, Powis — you are unjust to both. I, too,
lost my mother when a mere child, and never knew
her love and tenderness. Proceed ; I am calmer, and
earnestly intreat you to forget my weakness, and to
pr',-eed."

Paul did proceed, but this brief interruption in \vhich
they had mingled their sorrows for a common misfor
tune, struck a ne\v chord of feeling, and removed a
mountain of reserve and distance, that might other
wise have obstructed their growing confidence.

" Cut off in this manner, from my nearest and dear
est natural friend," Paul continued, " I was thrown,
an infant, into the care of hirelings ; and, in this at
least, my fortune w7as still more cruel than your
own ; for the excellent woman who has been so happy
as to have had the charge of your infancy, had nearly
the love of a natural mother, however she may have
been wanting in the attainments of one of your own
condition in life."

" But we had both of us, our fathers, Mr. Powis.
To me, my excellent, high principled, affectionate — nay
tender father, has been every thing. Without him, I
should have been truly miserable ; and with him, not
withstanding these rebellious tears, tears that I must
ascribe to the infection of your own grief, I have been
truly blest."

" Mr. Effingham deserves this from you, but I never
knew my father, you will remember."

" I am an unworthy confidant, to have forgotten
this so soon. Poor Powis, you were, indeed, un
happy !"

u He had parted from my mother before my birth,

HOME AS FOUND. 143

and either died soon after, or has never deemed his
child of sufficient worth to make him the subject of in
terest sufficient to excite a single inquiry into his fate."

" Then he never knew that child !" burst from Eve,
vvith a fervour and frankness, that set all reserves,
whether of womanly training, or of natural timidity,
at defiance.

" Miss Effingham ! — dearest Miss Effingham — Eve,
my own Eve, what am I to infer from this generous
warmth ! Do not mislead me ! I can bear my solij^ry
misery, can brave the sufferings of an isolated exist
ence ; but I could not live under the disappointments of
such a hope, a hope fairly quickened by a clear expres
sion from your lips."

" You teach me the importance of caution, Powis,
and we will now return to your history, and to that
confidence of which I shall not again prove a faithless
repository. For the present at least, I beg that you
will forget all else."'

" A command so kindly — so encouragingly given —
do I offend, dearest Miss Effingham?" Eve, for the sec
ond time in her life, placed her own light arm and beau
tiful hand, through the arm of Paul, discovering a be
witching but modest reliance on his worth and truth,
by the very manner in which she did this simple and
'fcvery-day act, while she said more cheerfully —

" You forget the substance of the command, at the
very moment you would have me suppose you most
disposed to obey it."

" Well, then, Miss Effingham, you shall be more im
plicitly minded. Why my father left my mother so
soon after their union, I never knew. It would seem
that they lived together but a few months, though I
have the proud consolation of knowing that my mother
was blameless. For years I suffered the misery of
doubt on a point that is ever the most tender with man,
a distrust of his own mother ; but all this has been
happily, blessedly, cleared up, during my late visit to

144 HOME AS FOUND.

England. It is true that Lady Dunluce was my mother's
sister, and as such might have been lenient to her fail
ings ; but a letter from my father, that was written only
a month before my mother's death, leaves no doubt not
only of her blamelessness as a wife, but bears ample
testimony to the sweetness of her disposition. This
letter is a precious document for a son to possess, Miss
Effingham !"

Eve made no answer ; but Paul fancied that he felt
another gentle pressure of the hand, which, until then,
had rested so lightly on his owrn arm, that he scarcely
dared to move the latter, lest he might lose the pre
cious consciousness of its presence.

" I have other letters from my father to my mother,"
the young man continued, " but none that are so cheer
ing to my heart as this. From their general tone, I
cannot persuade myself that he ever truly loved her.
It is a cruel thing, Miss Effingham, for a man to de
ceive a woman on a point like that !"

" Cruel, indeed," said Eve, firmly, " Death itself
were preferable to such a delusion."

" I think my father deceived himself as well as my
mother ; for there is a strange incoherence and a want
of distinctness in some of his letters, that caused feel
ings, keen as mine naturally were on such a subject, to
distrust his affection from the first."

" Was your mother rich ?" Eve asked innocently ;
for, an heiress herself, her vigilance had early been
directed to that great motive of deception and dis
honesty.

" Not in the least. She had little besides her high
lineage, and her beauty. I have her picture, which
sufficiently proves the latter ; had, I ought rather to
say, for it was her miniature, of which I was robbed
by the Arabs, as you may remember, and I have not
seen it since. In the way of money, my mother had
barely the competency of a gentlewoman ; nothing
more."

HOME AS FOUND. 145

The pressure on Paul was more palpable, as he
spoke of the miniature; and he ventured to touch
hi? companion's arm, in order to give it a surer hold
of his own.

" Mr. Powis was not mercenary, then, and it is a
great deal," said Eve, speaking as if she were scarcely
conscious that she spoke at all.

" Mr. Powis ! — He was every thing that was noble
and disinterested. A more generous, or a less selfish
man, never existed than Francis Powis."

" I thought you never knew your father personally !"
exclaimed Eve in surprise.

" Nor did I. But, you are in an error, in supposing
that my father's name was Powis, when it was Asshe-
ton."

Paul then explained the manner in which he had
been adopted while still a child, by a gentleman called
Powis, whose name he had taken, on finding himself
deserted by his own natural parent, and to whose fortune
he had succeeded, on the death of his voluntary pro
tector.

" I bore the name of Assheton until Mr. Powis took
me to France, when he advised me to assume his own,
which I did the more readily, as he thought he had
ascertained that my father was dead, and that he had
bequeathed the wrhole of a very considerable estate to
his nephews and nieces, making no allusion to me in
his will, and seemingly anxious even to deny his mar
riage ; at least, he passed among his acquaintances for
a bachelor to his dying day."

" There is something so unusual and inexplicable m
all this, Mr. Powis, that it strikes me you have been
to blame, in not inquiring more closely into the circum
stances than, by your own account, I should think had
been done."

" For a long time, for many bitter years, I was afraid
to inquire, lest I should learn something injurious to a mo
ther's name. Then there was the arduous and confined

VOL. II. 13

146 HOME AS FOUND.

.

service of my profession, which kept me in distant seas:
and the last journey and painful indisposition of my
excellent benefactor, prevented even the wish to inquire
after my own family. The offended pride of Mr. Pow-
is, who was justly hurt at the cavalier manner in which
my father's relatives met his advances, aided in alie
nating me from that portion of my relatives, and put
a stop to all additional proffers of intercourse from me.
They even affected to doubt the fact that my father
had ever married."

" But of that you had proof?" Eve earnestly asked.

" Unanswerable. My aunt Dunluce was present at
the ceremony, and I possess the certificate given to my
mother by the clergyman who officiated. Is it not
strange, Miss Effingham, that with all these circum
stances in favour of my legitimacy, even Lady Dunluce
and her family, until lately, had doubts of the fact."

" That is indeed unaccountable, your aunt having
witnessed the ceremony."

" Very true ; but some circumstances, a little aided
perhaps by the strong desire of her husband, General
bucie, to obtain the revival of a barony that was in
abeyance, and of which she would be the only heir,
assuming that my rights were invalid, inclined her to
believe that my father was already married, when he
entered into the solemn contract with my mother. But
from that curse too, I have been happily relieved."

" Poor Powis !" said Eve, with a sympathy that her
voice expressed more clearly even than her words •
" you have, indeed, suffered cruelly, for one so young/

" I have learned to bear it, dearest Miss Effingham,
and have stood so long a solitary and isolated being,
one in whom none have taken any interest "

" Nay, say not that — ice, at least, have always felt
an interest in you — have always esteemed you, and
now have learned to "

"Learned to ?"

" Love you," said Eve, with a steadiness that after-

HOME AS FOUND. 147

•

wards astonished herself; but she felt that a being so
placed, was entitled to be treated with a frankness dif-
terent from the reserve that it is usual for her sex to
observe on similar occasions.

" Love !" cried Paul, dropping her arm. " Miss
Effingham ! — Eve — but that we /"

" I mean my dear father — cousin Jack — myself."

" Such a feeling will not heal a wound like mine.
A love that is shared with even such men as your ex
cellent father, and your worthy cousin, will not make
me happy. But, why should I, unowned, bearing a
name to which I have no legal title, and virtually with
out relatives, aspire to one like you !"

The windings of the path had brought them near a
window of the house, whence a stream of strong light
gleamed upon the sweet countenance of Eve, as rais
ing her eyes to those of her companion, with a face
bathed in tears, and flushed with natural feeling and
modesty, the struggle between which even heightened
her loveliness, she smiled an encouragement that it
was impossible* to misconstrue.

" Can I believe my senses ! Will you — do you — can
you listen to the suit of one like me ?" the young man
exclaimed, as he hurried his companion past the win
dow, lest some interruption might destroy his hopes.

" Is there any sufficient reason why I should not,
Powis ?"

" Nothing but my unfortunate situation in respect to
my family, my comparative poverty, and my general
unworthiness."

" Your unfortunate situation in respect to your rela
tives would, if any thing, be a new and dearer tie with
us ; your comparative poverty is merely comparative,
and can be of no account, where there is sufficient
already ; and as for your general unworthiness, I fear
it will find more than an offset, in that of the girl you
have so rashly chosen from the rest of the wrorld."
"Eve — dearest Eve — " said Paul, seizing both her

148 HOME AS FOUND. t

hands, and stopping her at the entrance of some shrub
bery, that densely shaded the path, and where the
little light that fell from the stars enabled him still to
trace her features — " you will not leave me in doubt
on a subject of this nature — am I really so blessed ?"

" If accepting the faith and affection of a heart that
is wholly yours, Powis, can make you happy, your
sorrows will be at an end — — "

"But your father?" said the young man, almost
breathless in his eagerness to know all.

" Is here to confirm what his daughter has just
declared," said Mr. Effingham, coming out of the
shrubbery beyond them, and laying a hand kindly on
Paul's shoulder. " To find that you so \vell under
stand each other, Powis, removes from my mind one
of the greatest anxieties I have ever experienced.
My cousin John, as he was bound to do, has made me
acquainted with all you have told him of your past
life, and there remains nothing further to be revealed.
We have known you for years, and receive you into
our family with as free a welcome as \ve could receive
iny precious boon from Providence."

" Mr. Effingham ! — dear sir," said Paul, almost
gasping between surprise and rapture — " this is indeed
beyond all my hopes — and this generous frankness,
too, in your lovely daughter "

Paul's hands had been transferred to those of the
father, he knew not how ; but releasing them hurriedly,
he now turned in quest of Eve again, and found she had
fled. In the short interval between the address of her
father and the words of Paul, she had found means to
disappear, leaving the gentlemen together. The young
man would have followed, but the cooler head of Mr.
Effingham perceiving that the occasion was favour
able to a private conversation with his accepted son-
in-law, and quite as unfavourable to one, or at
least to a very rational one, between the lovers, he
quietly took the young man's arm, and led him

HOME AS FOUND. 149

towards a more private walk. There half an hour of
confidential discourse calmed the feelings of both, and
rendered Paul Powis one of the happiest of human
beings.

CHAPTER X.

" You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
Before you visit him, to make inquiry
Of his behaviour."

HAMLET.

ANN SIDLEY was engaged among the dresses of
Eve, as she loved to be, although Annette held her taste
in too low estimation ever to permit her to apply a
needle, or even to fit a robe to the beautiful form that
was to wear it, when our heroine glided into the room
and sunk upon a sofa. Eve was too much absorbed
with her own feelings to observe the presence of her
quiet unobtrusive old nurse, and too much accustomed
to her care and sympathy to heed it, had it been seen.
For a moment she remained, her face still suffused
with blushes, her hands lying before her folded, her
eyes fixed on the ceiling, and then the pent emotions
found an outlet in a flood of tears.

Poor Ann could not have felt more shocked, had
she heard of any unexpected calamity, than she was
at this sudden outbreaking of feeling in her child.
She went to her, and bent over her with the solicitude
of a mother, as she inquired into the causes of her
apparent sorrow.

" Tell me, Miss Eve, and it will relieve your mind,"
said the faithful woman ; " your dear mother had such
feelings sometimes, and I never dared to question her
about them ; but you are my own child, and nothing
can grieve you without grieving me."
13*

150 HOME AS FOUND.

The eyes of Eve were brilliant, her face continued
to be suffused, and the smile which she gave through
her tears was so bright, as to leave her poor attendant
in deep perplexity as to the cause of a gush of feel
ing that was very unusual in one of the other's regu
lated mind.

" It is not grief, dear Nanny," — Eve at length mur
mured — " any thing but that ! I am not unhappy. Oh !
no ; as far from unhappiness as possible."

" God be praised it is so, ma'am ! I was afraid that
this affair of the English gentleman and Miss Grace
might not prove agreeable to you, for he has not be
haved as handsomely as he might, in that transaction."

" And why not, my poor Nanny ? — I have neither
claim, nor the wish to possess a claim, on Sir George
Templemore. His selection of my cousin has given
me sincere satisfaction, rather than pain ; were he a
countryman of our own, I should say unalloyed satis
faction, for I firmly believe he will strive to make her
happy."

Nanny now looked at her young mistress, then at
the floor ; at her young mistress again, and afterwards
at a rocket that was sailing athwart the sky. Her
eyes, however, returned to those of Eve, and encour
aged by the bright beam of happiness that was glowing
in the countenance she so much loved, she ventured to
say —

" If Mr. Powis were a more presuming gentleman
than he is, ma'am "

" You mean a less modest, Nanny," said Eve, per
ceiving that her nurse paused.

" Yes, ma'am — one that thought more of himself,
and less of other people, is what I wish to say."

" And were this the case ?"

" I might think he would find the heart to say what
I know he feels."

" And did he find the heart to say what you know
he feels, what does Ann Sidley think should be my
answer ?"

HOME AS FOUND. 151

"Oh, ma'am, I know it would be just as it ought to
be. I cannot repeat what ladies say on such occasions,
but I know that it is what makes the hearts of the gen
tlemen leap for joy."

There are occasions in which woman can hardly
dispense with the sympathy of woman. Eve loved
her father most tenderly, had more than the usual con
fidence in him, for she had never known a mother ; but
had the present conversation been with him, notwith
standing all her. reliance on his affection, her nature
would have shrunk from pouring out her feelings as
freely as she might have done with her other parent,
had not death deprived her of such a blessing. Be
tween our heroine and Ann Sidley, on the other hand,
there existed a confidence of a nature so peculiar, as
to require a word of explanation before we exhibit its
effects. In all that related to physical wants, Ann
had been a mother, or even more than a mother to
Eve, and this alone had induced great personal depend
ence in the one, and a sort of supervisory care in the
other, that had brought her to fancy she was responsi
ble for the bodily health and well-doing of her charge.
But this was not all. Nanny had been the repository
of Eve's childish griefs, the confidant of her girlish se
crets ; and though the years of the latter soon caused
her to be placed under the management of those who
were better qualified to store her mind, this communi
cation never ceased ; the high-toned and educated young
woman reverting with unabated affection, and a reli
ance that nothing could shake, to the long-tried tender
ness of the being who had watched over her infancy.
The effect of such an intimacy was often amusing ; the
one party bringing to the conferences, a mind filled
with the knowledge suited to her sex and station, habits
that had been formed in the best circles of Christendom,
and tastes that had been acquired in schools of high
reputation ; and the other, little more than her single-
hearted love, a fidelity that ennobled her nature, and a

152 HOME AS FOUND.

simplicity that betokened perfect purity of thought,
Nor was this extraordinary confidence without its ad
vantages to Eve ; for, thrown so early among the arti
ficial and calculating, it served to keep her own in
genuousness of character active, and prevented that
cold, selfish, and unattractive sophistication, that mere
women of fashion are apt to fall into, from their iso
lated and factitious mode of existence. When Eve.
therefore, put the questions to her nurse, that have al
ready been mentioned, it was more "with a real wish
to know how the latter would view a choice on which
her own mind was so fully made up, than any silly tri
fling on a subject that engrossed so much of her best
affections.

" But you have not told me, dear Nanny," she con
tinued, " what you would have that answer be.
Ought I, for instance, ever to quit my beloved father?"

"What necessity would there be for that, ma'am?
Mr. Powis has no home of his owrn ; and, for that mat
ter, scarcely any country "

" How can you know this, Nanny ?" demanded Eve,
with the jealous sensitiveness of a young love.

"Why, Miss Eve, his man says this much, and he
has lived with him long enough to know it, if he had
a home. Now, I seldom sleep without looking back
at the day, and often have my thoughts turned to Sir
George Templemore and Mr. Powis ; and when I have
remembered that the first had a house and a home,
and that the last had neither, it has always seemed to
me that he ought to be the one."

" And then, in all this matter, you have thought of
convenience, and what might be agreeable to others,
rather than of me."

" Miss Eve !"

" Nay, dearest Nanny, forgive me ; I know your
last thought, in every thing, is for yourself. But,
surely, the mere circumstance that he had no home,
ought not to be a sufficient reason for selecting any

HOME AS FOUND. 153

man, for a husband. With most women it would be
an objection."

"I pretend to know very little of these feelings, Miss
Eve. I have been wooed, I acknowledge ; and once I
do think I might have been tempted to marry, had it
not been for a particular circumstance."

" You ! You marry, Ann Sidley !" exclaimed Eve,
to whom the bare idea seemed as odd and unnatural,
as that her own father should forget her mother, and
take a second wife. " This is altogether new, and I
should be glad to know what the lucky circumstance
was, which prevented what, to me, might have proved
so great a calamity."

" Why, ma'am, I said to myself, what does a woman
do, who marries 1 She vows to quit all else to go with
her husband, and to love him before father and mother,
and all other living beings on earth — is it not so, Miss
Eve?"

" I believe it is so, indeed, Nanny — nay, I am quite
certain it is so," Eve answered, the colour deepening
on her cheek, as she gave this opinion to her old nurse,
with the inward consciousness that she had just expe
rienced some of the happiest moments of her life,
through the admission of a passion that thus over
shadowed all the natural affections. " It is, truly, as
you say."

" Well, ma'am, I investigated my feelings, I believe
they call it, and after a proper trial, I found that I loved
you so much better than any one else, that I could not,
in conscience, make the vows."

" Dearest Nanny ! my kind, good, faithful old nurse !
let me hold you in my arms : and, I, selfish, thought
less, heartless girl, would forget the circumstance that
would be most likely to keep us together, for the re
mainder of our lives ! Hist ! there is a tap at the door.
It is Mrs. Bloom field ; I know her light step. Admit
ner, my kind Ann, and leave us together."

The bright searching eye of Mrs. Bloomfield was

154 HOME AS FOUND.

~'veted on her young friend, as she advanced into the
, oom; and her smile, usually so gay and sometimes
ironical, was now thoughtful and kind.

"Well, Miss Effingham," she cried, in a manner
that her looks contradicted, " am I to condole with
you, or to congratulate? — For a more sudden, or
miraculous change did I never before witness in a
young lady, though whether it be for the better or the

worse These are ominous words, too — for ' better

or worse, for richer or poorer' — —• "

" You are in fine spirits this evening, my dear Mrs.
Bloomfield, and appear to have entered into the gaieties
of the Fun of Fire, with all your "

" Might, will be a homely, but an expressive word.
Your Templeton Fun of Fire is fiery fun, for it has
cost us something like a general conflagration. Mrs.
Hawker has been near a downfall, like your great
namesake, by a serpent's coming too near her dress ;
one barn, I hear, has actually been in a blaze, and Sir
George Templemore's heart is in cinders. Mr. John
Effingham has been telling me that he should not have
been a bachelor, had there been two Mrs. Bloomfields
in the world, and Mr. Powis looks like a rafter dugout
of Herculaneum, nothing but coal."

"And what occasions this pleasantry?" asked Eve,
so composed in manner that her friend was mo
mentarily deceived.

Mrs. Bloomfield took a seat on the sofa, by the
side of our heroine, and regarding her steadily for
near a minute, she continued —

" Hypocrisy and Eve Effingham can have little in
common, and my ears must have deceived me."

" Your ears, dear Mrs. Bloomfield !"

" My ears, dear Miss Effingham. I very well
know the character of an eaves-dropper, but if gen-
'lemen will make passionate declarations in the walks
of a garden, with nothing but a little shrubbery be
tween his ardent declarations and the curiosity of those

H031E AS FOUND. 155

who may happen to be passing, they must expect to be
overheard."

Eve's colour had gradually increased as her friend
proceeded; and when the other ceased speaking, as
bright a bloom glowed on her countenance, as had
shone there when she first entered the room.

" May I ask the meaning of all this 1" she said, with
an effort to appear calm.

" Certainly, my dear ; and you shall also know the
feelings that prompt it, as well as the meaning," re
turned Mrs. Bloomfield, kindly taking Eve's hand in a
way to show that she did not mean to trifle further on
a subject that was of so much moment to her young
friend. " Mr. John Effingham arid myself were star
gazing at a point where two walks approach each other,
just as you and Mr. Powis were passing in the adjoin
ing path. Without absolutely stopping our ears, it was
quite impossible not to hear a portion of your conver
sation. We both tried to behave honourably ; for I
coughed, and your kinsman actually hemmed, but we
were unheeded."

" Coughed and hemmed !" repeated Eve, in greater
confusion than ever. " There must be some mistake,
dear Mrs. Bloomfield, as I remember 'to have heard no
such signals."

" Quite likely, my love, for there was a time when
I too had ears for only one voice ; but you can have
affidavits to the fact, a la mode de New England, if you
require them. Do not mistake my motive, neverthe
less, Miss Effingham, which is any thing but vulgar
curiosity" — here Mrs. Bloomfield looked so kind and
friendly, that Eve took both her hands and pressed
them to her heart — " you are motherless ; without even
a single female connexion of a suitable age to consult
with on such an occasion, and fathers after all are but
vnen— — "

" Mine is as kind, and delicate, and tender, as any
woman can be, Mrs. Bloomfield."

156 HOME AS FOUND.

" I believe it all, though he may not be quite as
quick-sighted, in an affair of this nature. — Am I at
liberty to speak to you as if I were an elder sister ?"

" Speak, Mrs. Bloomfield, as frankly as you please,
but leave me the mistress of my answers."

" It is, then, as I suspected," said Mrs. Bloomfield,
in a sort of musing manner; "the men have been
won over, and this young creature has absolutely been
left without a protector in the most important moment
of her life !"

" Mrs. Bloomfield ! — What does this mean 1 — What
can it mean ?"

" It means merely general principles, child ; that
your father and cousin have been parties concerned,
instead of vigilant sentinels ; and, with all their pre
tended care, that you have been left to grope your
way in the darkness of female uncertainty, with one
of the most pleasing young men in the country con
stantly before you, to help the obscurity."

It is a dreadful moment, when we are taught to
doubt the worth of those we love ; and Eve became
pale as death, as she listened to the words of her friend.
Once before, on the occasion of Paul's return to Eng
land, she had felt a pang of that sort, though reflection,
and a calm revision of all his acts and words since
they first met in Germany, had enabled her to get the
better of indecision, and when she first saw him on the
mountain, nearly every unpleasant apprehension and
distrust had been dissipated by an effort of pure reason.
His own explanations had cleared up the unpleasant
affair, and, from that moment, she had regarded him alto
gether with the eyes of a confiding partiality. The speech
of Mrs. Bloomfield now sounded like words of doom to
her, and, for an instant, her friend was frightened with
the effects of her own imperfect communication. Until
that moment Mrs. Bloomfield had formed no just idea
of the extent to which the feelings of Eve were inter
ested in Paul, for she had but. an imperfect knowledge

HOME AS FOUND. 157

of their early association in Europe, and she sincerely
repented having introduced the subject at all. It was
too late to retreat, however, and, first folding Eve in
her arms, and kissing her cold forehead, she hastened
to repair a part, at least, of the mischief she had done.

" My words have been too strong, I fear," she said,
'* but such is my general horror of the manner in which
the young of our sex, in this country, are abandoned
to the schemes of the designing and selfish of the other,
that I am, perhaps, too sensitive when I see any one
that I love thus exposed. You are known, my dear, to
be one of the richest heiresses of the country ; and, I
blush to say that no accounts of European society that
we have, make fortune-hunting a more regular occu
pation there, than it has got to be here."

The paleness left Eve's face, and a look of slight
displeasure succeeded.

" Mr. Powis is no fortune-hunter, Mrs. Bloomfield,"
she said, steadily ; " his whole conduct for three years
has been opposed to such a character ; and, then, though
not absolutely rich, perhaps, he has a gentleman's in
come, and is removed from the necessity of being
reduced to such an act of baseness."

" I perceive my error, but it is now too late to re
treat. I do not say that Mr. Powis is a fortune-hunter,
bnt. there are circumstances connected with his history,
th^t you ought at least to know, and that immediately.
I have chosen to speak to you, rather than to speak to
your father, because I thought you might like a female
confidant on such occasion, in preference even to your
excellent natural protector. The idea of Mrs. Haw
ker occurred to me, on account of her age ; but I did
not feel authorised to communicate to her a secret of
which I had myself become so accidentally possessed.'

" I appreciate your motive fully, dearest Mrs. Bloom-
field," said Eve, smiling with all her native sweetness,
and greatly relieved, for she now began to think that
too keen a sensitiveness on the subject of Paul had

VOL. II. 14

158 HOME AS FOUND.

unnecessarily alarmed her, " and beg there may be na
reserves between us. If you know a reason why Mr
Powis should not be received as a suitor, I entreat you
to mention it."

" Is he Mr. Powis at all ?'

Again Eve smiled, to Mrs. Bloomfield's great sur
prise, for, as the latter had put the question with sin
cere reluctance, she was astonished at the coolness
with which it was received.

" He is not Mr. Powis, legally perhaps, though he
might be, but that he dislikes the publicity of an appli
cation to the legislature. His paternal name is Asshe-
ton."

" You know his history, then !"

" There has been no reserve on the part of Mi
Powis ; least of all, any deception."

Mrs. Bloomfield appeared perplexed, even distressed ;
and there was a brief space, during which her mind
was undecided as to the course she ought to take.
That she had committed an error by attempting a con
sultation, in a matter of the heart, with one of her own
sex, after the affections were engaged, she discovered
when it was too late ; but she prized Eve's friendship
too much, and had too just a sense of what was due
to herself, to leave the affair where it was, or without
clearing up her own unasked agency in it.

" I rejoice to learn this," she said, as soon as her
doubts had ended, " for frankness, while it is one of the
safest, is one of the most beautiful traits in human cha
racter ; but beautiful though it be, it is one that the
other sex uses least to our own."

" Is our own too ready to use it to the other ?"

" Perhaps not : it might be better for both parties,
were there less deception practised during the period
of courtship, generally : but as this is hopeless, and
might destroy some of the most pleasing illusions of
life, we will not enter into a treatise on the frauds of
Cupid. Now to my own confessions, which I make

HOME AS FOUND. 159

all the more willingly, because I know they are ut
tered to the ear of one of a forgiving temperament,
and who is disposed to view even my follies favourably."

The kind but painful smile of Eve, assured the
speaker she was not mistaken, and she continued, after
taking time to read the expression of the countenance
of her young friend —

" In common with all of New-York, that town of
babbling misses, who prattle as water flows, without
consciousness or effort, and of whiskered masters, who
fancy Broadway the world, and the flirtations of mi
niature drawing-rooms, human nature, I believed, on
your return from Europe, that an accepted suitor fol
lowed in your train, in the person of Sir George Tem-
plemore."

" Nothing in my deportment, or in that of Sir George,
or in that of any of my family, could justly have given
rise to such a notion," said Eve, quickly.

" Justly ! What has justice, or truth, or even pro
bability, to do with a report, of which love and mat
rimony are the themes? Do you not know society better
than to fancy this improbability, child ?"

" I know that our own sex would better consult their
own dignity and respectability, my dear Mrs. Bloom-
field, if they talked less of such matters ; and that
they w7ould be more apt to acquire the habits of good
taste, not to say of good principles, if they confined
their strictures more to things and sentiments than they
do, and meddled less with persons."

"And pray, is there no tittle-tattle, no scandal, no
commenting on one's neighbours, in other civilized na
tions besides this ?"

" Unquestionably ; though I believe, as a rule, it is
every where thought to be inherently vulgar, and a
proof of low associations."

" In that, we are perfectly of a mind ; for, if there
be any thing that betrays a consciousness of inferi
ority, it is our rendering others of so much obvious

160 HOME AS FOUND.

importance to ourselves, as to make them the subjects
of our constant conversation. We may speak of vir
tues, for therein we pay an homage to that which is
good ; but when we come to dwell on personal faults,
it is rather a proof that we have a silent conviction of
the superiority of the subject of our comments to our-
. selves, either in character, talents, social position, or
something else that is deemed essential, than of our
distaste for his failings. Who, for instance, talks scan
dal of his grocer, or of his shoemaker? No, no, our
pride forbids this ; we always make our betters the
subject of our strictures by preference, taking up with
our equals only when we can get none of a higher
class."

" This quite reconciles me to having been given to
Sir George Templemore, by the world of New- York,"
said Eve, smiling.

" And wrell it may, for they who have prattled of
your engagement, have done so principally because
they are incapable of maintaining a conversation on
any thing else. But, all this time, I fear I stand ac
cused in your mind, of having given advice unasked,
and of feeling an alarm in an affair that affected others,
instead of myself, which is the very sin that we lay at
the door of our worthy Manhattanese. In common
with all around me, then, I fancied Sir George Tem
plemore an accepted lover, and, by habit, had gotten
to associate you together in my pictures. On my
arrival here, however, I will confess that Mr. Powis,
whom, you will remember, I had never seen before,
struck me as much the most dangerous man. — Shall
I own all my absurdity?"

" Even to the smallest shade."

" Well, then, I confess to having supposed that,
while the excellent father believed you were in a fair
way to become Lady Templemore, the equally excel
lent daughter thought the other suitor, infinitely the
most agreeable person."

HOME AS FOUND. 16 t

" What ! in contempt of a betrothal ?"

"Of course I, at once, ascribed that part of the
report to the usual embellishments. We do not like to
be deceived in our calculations, or to discover that
even our gossip has misled us. In pure resentment at
my own previous delusion, I began to criticise this
Mr. Powis "

" Criticise, Mrs. Bloomfield !"

" To find fault with him, my dear ; to try to think
he was not just the handsomest and most engaging
young man I had ever seen ; to imagine what he ought
to be, in place of what he was; and among other
things, to inquire who he was ?"

" You did not think proper to ask that question of
any of its," said Eve, gravely.

" I did not ; for I discovered by instinct, or intuition,
or conjecture — they mean pretty much the same thing,
I believe — that there was a mystery about him ; some
thing that even his Templeton friends did not quite
understand, and a lucky thought occurred of making
my inquiries of another person."

" They were answered satisfactorily," said Eve,
looking up at her friend, with the artless confidence
that marks her sex, when the affections have gotten
the mastery of reason.

" Cosi, cosi. Bloomfield has a brother who is in the
Navy, as you know, and I happened to remember that
he had once spoken of an officer of the nam£ of
Powis, who had performed a clever thing in the West
Indies, when they were employed together against the
pirates. I wrote to him one of my usual letters, that
are compounded of all things in nature and art, and
took an occasion to allude to a certain Mr. Paul
Powis, with a general remark that he had formerly
served, together with a particular inquiry if he knew
any thing about him. All this, no doubt, you think
very officious ; but believe me, dear Eve. where there
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162 HOME AS FOUND.

was as much interest as I felt and feel in you, it was
very natural."

" So far from entertaining resentment, I am grate
ful for your concern, especially as I know it was mani
fested cautiously, and without any unpleasant allusions
to third persons."

" In that respect I believe I did pretty well. Tom
Bloomfield — I beg his pardon, Captain Bloom field, for
so he calls himself, at present — knows Mr. Powis well;
or, rather did know him, for they have not met for
years, and he speaks of his personal qualities and pro
fessional merit highly, but takes occasion to remark
that there was some mystery connected with his birth,
as, before he joined the service he understood he was
called Assheton, and at a later day, Powis, and this
without any public law, or public avowal of a motive.
Now, it struck me that Eve Effingham ought not to be
permitted to form a connection with a man so un
pleasantly situated, without being apprised of the fact.
I was waiting for a proper occasion to do this ungrate
ful office myself, when accident made me acquainted
with what has passed this evening, and perceiving that
there was no time to lose, I came hither, more led by
interest in you, my dear, perhaps, than by discretion."

" I thank you sincerely for this kind concern in my
welfare, dear Mrs. Bloomfield, and give you full credit
for the motive. Will you permit me to inquire how
much you know of that which passed this evening ?"

" Simply that Mr. Powis is desperately in love, a
declaration that I take it is always dangerous to the
peace of mind of a young woman, when it comes
from a very engaging young man."

" And my part of the dialogue — " Eve blushed to
the eyes as she asked this question, though she made
a great effort to appear calm — " my answer ?"

" There was too much of woman in me — of true,
genuine, loyal, native woman, Miss Effingham, to listen
to that, had there been an opportunity. We were but

HOME AS FOUND. 163

A moment near enough to hear any thing, though that
moment sufficed to let us know the state of feelings of
the gentleman. I ask no confidences, my dear Eve,
and now that I have made my explanations, lame
though they be, I will kiss you and repair to the draw
ing-room, where we shall both be soon missed. For
give me, if I have seemed impertinent in my interfe
rence, and continue to ascribe it to its true motive."

" Stop, Mrs. Bloomfield, I entreat, for a single mo
ment ; I wish to say a word before we part. As you
have been accidentally made acquainted with Mr.
Powis's sentiments towards me, it is no more than just
that you should know the nature of mine towards
him "

Eve paused involuntarily, for, though she had com
menced her explanation, with a firm intention to do
justice to Paul, the bashfulness of her sex held her
tongue tied, at the very moment her desire to speak
was the strongest. An effort conquered the weakness,
and the warm-hearted, generous-minded girl succeeded
in commanding her voice.

" I cannot allow you to go' away with the impres
sion, that there is a shade of any sort on the conduct
of Mr. Powis," she said. " So far from desiring to
profit by the accidents that have placed it in his power
to render us such essential service, he has never spo
ken of his love until this evening, and then under cir
cumstances in which feeling, naturally, perhaps I might
say uncontrollably, got the ascendency."

" I believe it all, for I feel certain Eve Effingham
would not bestow her heart heedlessly."

" Heart !— Mrs. Bloomfield !"

" Heart, my dear ; and now I insist on the subject's
being dropped, at least, for the present. Your deci
sion is probably not yet made — you are not yet an
hour in possession of your s-uitor's secret, and prudence
demands deliberation. I shall hope to see you in the
drawing-room, and until then, adieu."

164 HOME AS FOUND.

Mrs. Bloomfield signed for silence, and quitted the
room with the same light tread as that with which she
had entered it.

CHAPTER XL

" To show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very
age and body of the time, his form and pressure."

SHAKSPEARE.

WHEN Mrs. Bloomfield entered the drawing-room,
she found nearly the whole party assembled. The
Fun of Fire had ceased, and the rockets no longer
gleamed athwart the sky ; but the blaze of artificial
light within, was more than a substitute for that which
had so lately existed without.

Mr. Effingham and Paul were conversing by them
selves, in a window-seat, while John Effingham, Mrs.
Hawker, and Mr. Howel were in an animated discus
sion on a sofa ; Mr. Wenham had also joined the party,
arid was occupied with Captain Ducie, though not so
much so as to prevent occasional glances at the trio
just mentioned. Sir George Templemore and Grace
Van Cortlandt were walking together in the great hall,
and were visible through the open door, as they passed
and repassed.

" I am glad of your appearance among us, Mrs
Bloomfield," said John Effingham, " for, certainly more
Anglo-mania never existed than that which my good
friend Howel manifests this evening, and I have hopes
that your eloquence may persuade him out of some of
those notions, on which my logic has fallen like seed
scattered by the way-side."

" I can have little hopes of success where Mr. John
Effingham has failed."

" I am far from being certain of that ; for, somehow,

HOME AS FOUND. 165

Howel has taken up the notion that I have gotten a
grudge against England, and he listens to all I say
with distrust and distaste."

" Mr. John uses strong language habitually, ma'am,'*
cried Mr. Howel, " and you will make some allowances
for a vocabulary that has no very mild terms in it ;
though, to be frank, I do confess that he seems preju
diced on the subject of that great nation/''

" What is the point in immediate controversy, gen
tlemen ?" asked Mrs. Bloomfield, taking a seat.

" Why here is a review of a late American work,
ma'am, and I insist that the author is skinned alive,
whereas, Mr. John insists that the reviewer exposes
only his own rage, the work having a national charac
ter, and running counter to the reviewer's feelings and
interests."

" Nay, I protest against this statement of the case,
for I affirm that the reviewer exposes a great deal
more than his rage, since his imbecility, ignorance,
and dishonesty are quite as apparent as any thing
else."

" I have read the article," said Mrs. Bloomfield, after
glancing her eye at the periodical, " and I must say
that I take sides with Mr. John Effingham in his opi
nion of its character."

" But do you not perceive, ma'am, that this is the
idol of the nobility and gentry ; the work that is more
in favour with people of consequence in England than
any other. Bishops are said to write for it !"

" I know it is a work expressly established to sustain
one of the most factitious political systems that ever
existed, and that it sacrifices every high quality to
attain its end."

" Mrs. Bloomfield, you amaze me ! The first writers
of Great Britain figure in its pages."

" That I much question, in the first place; but even
if it were so, it would be but a shallow mystification.
Although a man of character might write one article

166 HOME AS FOUND,

in a work of this nature, it does not follow that a man
of no character does not write the next. The princi
ples of the communications of a periodical are as dif
ferent as their talents."

" But the editor is a pledge for all. — The editor of
this review is an eminent writer himself."

" An eminent writer may be a very great knave, in
the first place, and one fact is worth a thousand con
jectures in such a matter. But we do not know that
there is any responsible editor to works of this nature
at all, for there is no name given in the title-page, and
nothing is more common than vague declarations of a
want of this very responsibility. But if I can prove
to you that this article cannot have been written by a
man of common honesty, Mr. Howel, what will you
then say to the responsibility of your editor?"

"In that case I shall be compelled to admit that he
had no connexion with it."

" Any thing in preference to giving up the beloved
idol!" said John Effingham laughing. "Why not add
at once, that he is as great a knave as the writer him
self? I am glad, however, that Tom Howel has
fallen into such good hands, Mrs. Bloomfield, and I
devoutly pray you may not spare him."

We have said that Mrs. Bloomfield had a rapid per
ception of things and principles, that amounted almost
to intuition. She had read the article in question, and,
as she glanced her eyes through its pages, had detected
its fallacies and falsehoods, in almost every sentence.
Indeed, they had not been put together with ordinary
skill, the writer having evidently presumed on the easi
ness of the class of readers who generally swallowed
his round assertions, and were so clumsily done that
any one who had not the faith to move mountains
would have seen through most of them without diffi
culty. But Mr. Howel belonged to another school,
and he was so much accustomed to shut his eyes to
the palpable mystification mentioned by Mrs. Bloom-

HOME AS FOUND. 167

field, that a lie, which, advanced in most works, would
have carried no .weight with it, advanced in this par
ticular periodical became elevated to the dignity of
truth.

Mrs. Bloomfield turned to an article on America, in
the periodical in question, and read from it several dis
paraging expressions concerning Mr. Howel's native
country, one of which was, " The American's first
plaything is the rattle-snake's tail."

" Now, what do you think of this assertion in parti
cular, Mr. Howel ?' she asked, reading the words we
have just quoted.

" Oh ! that is said in mere pleasantry — it is only
wit."

" Well, then, what do you think of it as wit ?"

" Well, well, it may not be of a very pure water,
but the best of men are unequal at all times, and more
especially in their wit."

" Here," continued Mrs. Bloomfield, pointing to
another paragraph, " is a positive statement or misstate-
ment, which makes the cost of the * civil department of
the United States Government,' about six times more
than it really is."

" Our government is so extremely mean, that I as
cribe that error to generosity."

"Well," continued the lady, smiling, "here the re
viewer asserts that Congress passed a law limiting the
size of certain ships, in order to please the democracy ;
and that the Executive privately evaded this law, and
built vessels of a much greater size ; whef eas the pro
vision of the law is just the contrary, or that the ships
should not be less than of seventy-four guns ; a piece
of information, by the way, that I obtained from Mr.
Powis."

" Ignorance, ma'am ; a stranger cannot be supposed
to know all the laws of a foreign country."

"Then why make bold and false assertions about
them, that are intended to discredit the country ? Here

168 HOME A^ FOUND.

is another assertion — " ten thousand of the men that
fought at Waterloo would have marched through
North America ?' Do you believe that, Mr. Howel ?"

" But that is merely an opinion, Mrs. Bloomfield ;
any man may be wrong in his opinion."

" Very true, but it is an opinion uttered in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight, hundred and twenty-
eight ; and after the battles of Bunker Hill, Cowpens,
Plattsburg, Saratoga, and New-Orleans ! And, more
over, after it had been proved that something very like
ten thousand of the identical men who fought at Water
loo, could not march even ten miles into the country."

"Well, well, all this shows that the reviewer is some
times mistaken."

" Your pardon Mr. Howel ; I think it shows, ac
cording to your own admission, that his wit, or rather
its wit, for there is no his about it — that its wit is of a
very indifferent quality as witticisms even ; that it is
ignorant of what it pretends to know ; and that its opi
nions are no better than its knowledge : all of which,
when fairly established against one who, by his very
pursuit, professes to know more than other people, is
very much like making it appear contemptible."

" This is going back eight or ten years — let us look
more particularly at the article about which the discus
sion commences."

" Volontiers."

Mrs. Bloomfield now sent to the library for the work
reviewed, and opening the review she read some of
its strictures^ and then turning to the corresponding
passages in the work itself, she pointed out the unfair
ness of the quotations, the omissions of the context,
and, in several flagrant instances, witticisms of the re
viewer, that were purchased at the expense of the En
glish language. She next showed several of those
audacious assertions, for which the particular periodi
cal was so remarkable, leaving no doubt with any
candid person, that they were purchased at the expense
of truth.

: ~— •

HOME AS FOUND. 169

" But here is an instance that will scarce admit of ca
villing or objection on your part, Mr. Howel," she contin
ued; "do me the favour to read the passage in the re view."

Mr. Howel complied, and when he had done, he
looked expectingly at the lady.

" The effect of the reviewer's statement is to make it
appear that the author has contradicted himself, is it not?"

" Certainly, nothing can be plainer."

"According to your favourite reviewer, who accuses
him of it, in terms. Now let us look at the fact. Here
is the passage in the work itself. In the first place you
will remark that this sentence, which contains the
alleged contradiction, is mutilated ; the part which is
omitted, giving a directly contrary meaning to it, from
that it bears under the reviewer's scissors."

" It has some such appearance, I do confess."

" Here you perceive that the closing sentence of the
same paragraph, and which refers directly to the point
at issue, is displaced, made to appear as belonging to
a separate paragraph, and as conveying a different
meaning from what the author has actually expressed."

" Upon my word, I do not know but you are right !"

" Well, Mr. Howel, we have had wit of no very
pure water, ignorance as relates to facts, and mistakes
as regards very positive assertions. In what category,
as Captain Truck would say, do you place this ?"

" Why does not the author reviewed expose this ?"

" Why does not a gentleman wrangle with a de
tected pick-pocket?"

" It is literary swindling," said John Eflingham,
" and the man who did it, is inherently a knave."

" I think both these facts quite beyond dispute," ob
served Mrs. Bloomfield, laying down Mr. Howel's
favourite review with an air of cool contempt ; " and I
must say I did not think it necessary to prove the
general character of the work, at this late date, to any'
American of ordinary intelligence; much less to a
sensible man, like Mr. Howel."

yOL. II. 15

170 HOME AS FOUND.

" But, ma'am, there may be much truth and justice
in the rest of its remarks," returned the pertinacious
Mr. Howel, " although it has fallen into these mistakes."

"Were you ever on a jury, Howel?" asked John
Effingham, in his caustic manner.

" Often ; and on grand juries, too."

"Well, did the judge never tell you, when a wit
ness is detected in lying on one point, that his testimony
is valueless on all others ?"

" Very true ; but this is a review, and not testimony."

" The distinction is certainly a very good one,"
resumed Mrs. Bloomfield, laughing, " as nothing, in
general, can be less like honest testimony than a
review !"

" But I think, my dear ma'am, you will allow that
all this is excessively biting and severe — I can't say I
ever read any thing sharper in my life."

" It strikes me, Mr. Howel, as being nothing but
epithets, the cheapest and most contemptible of all
species of abuse. Were two men, in your presence, to
call each other such names, I think it would excite
nothing but disgust in your mind. When the thought
is clear and poignant, there is little need to have
recourse to mere epithets ; indeed, men never use the
latter, except when there is a deficiency of the first."

" Well, well, my friends," cried Mr. Howel, as he
walked away towards Grace and Sir George, " this
is a different thing from what I at first thought it, but
still I think you undervalue the periodical."

" I hope this little lesson will cool some of Mr. How-
el's faith in foreign morality," observed Mrs. Bloom-
field, as soon as the gentleman named was out of hear
ing ; " a more credulous and devout worshipper of the
idol, I have never before met."

" The school is diminishing, but it is still large. Men
like Tom Howel, who have thought in one direction
all their lives, are not easily brought to change their
notions, especially when the admiration which pro
ceeds from distance, distance ' that lends enchantment

HOME AS FOUND. 171

to the view,' is at the bottom of their faith. Had this
very article been written and printed round the corner
of the street in which he lives, Howel would be the
first to say that it was the production of a fellow with
out talents or principles, and was unworthy of a second
thought."

" I still think he will be a wiser, if not a better man,
by the exposure of its frauds."

" Not he. If you will excuse a homely and a coarse
simile, * he will return like a dog to his vomit, or the
sow to its wallowing in the mire.' I never knew one
of that school thoroughly cured, until he became him
self the subject of attack, or, by a close personal com
munication, was made to feel the superciliousness of
European superiority. It is only a week since I had
a discussion with him on the subject of the humanity
and the relish for liberty in his beloved model ; and
when I cited the instance of the employment of the
tomahawk, in the wars between England and this coun
try, he actually affirmed that the Indian savages killed
no women and children, but the wives and offspring
of their enemies ; and when I told him that the Eng
lish, like most other people, cared very little for any
liberty but their own, he coolly affirmed that their own
was the only liberty worth caring for !"

"Oh yes," put in young Mr. Wenham, who had
overheard the latter portion of the conversation, " Mr.
Howel is so thoroughly English, that he actually denies
that America is the most civilized country in the world,
or that we speak our language better than any nation
was ever before known to speak its own language."

" This is so manifest an act of treason," said Mrs.
Bloomfield, endeavouring to look grave, for Mr. Wen-
ham was any thing but accurate in the use of words
himself, commonly pronouncing " been," " ben,"
"does," "dooze," "nothing," "nawthing," "few,"
" foo," &c. &c. &c., " that, certainly, Mr. Howel
should be arraigned at the bar of public opinion for
the outrage."

172 HOME AS POUND.

"It is commonly admitted, even by our enemies,
that our mode of speaking is the very best in the world
which, I suppose, is the real reason why our literature
has so rapidly reached the top of the ladder."

" And is that the fact ?' asked Mrs. Bloomfield, with
a curiosity that was not in the least feigned.

" I believe no one denies that. You will sustain me
in this, I fancy, Mr. Dodge 1"

The editor of the Active Inquirer had approached,
and was just in time to catch the subject in discussion.
Now the modes of speech of these two persons, while
they had a great deal in common, had also a great
deal that was not in -common. Mr. Wenham was a
native of New-York, and his dialect was a mixture
that is getting to be sufficiently general, partaking
equally of the Doric of New England, the Dutch cross,
and the old English root ; whereas, Mr. Dodge spoke
the pure, unalloyed Tuscan of his province, rigidly ad
hering to all its sounds and significations. " Dissipa
tion,'' he contended, meant "drunkenness;" "ugly,"
" vicious ;" " clever," " good-natured ;" and " humbly,"
(homely) " ugly." In addition to this finesse in signifi
cations, he had a variety of pronunciations that often
put strangers at fault, and to which he adhered writh
a pertinacity that obtained some of its force from the
fact, that it exceeded his power to get rid of them.
Notwithstanding all these little peculiarities, peculiari
ties as respects every one but those who dwelt in his
own province, Mr. Dodge had also taken up the no
tion of his superiority on the subject of language, and
always treated the matter as one that was placed quite
beyond dispute, by its publicity and truth.

" The progress of American Literature," returned
the editor, "is really astonishing the four quarters of
the world. I believe it is very generally admitted, now,
that our pulpit and bar are at the very summit of these
two professions. Then we have much the best poets
of the age, while eleven of our novelists surpass any

HOME AS FOUND. 173

of all other countries. The American Philosophical
Society is, I believe, generally considered the most
acute learned body now extant, unless, indeed, the
New-York Historical Society may compete with it,
for that honour. Some persons give the palm to one,
and some to the other ; though I myself think it would
be difficult to decide between them. Then to what a
pass has the drama risen of late years ! Genius is
getting to be quite a drug in America !"

" You have forgotten to speak of the press, in par
ticular," put in the complacent Mr. Wenham. " I
think we may more safely pride ourselves on the high
character of the press, than any thing else."

" Why, to tell you the truth, sir," answered Stead
fast, taking the other by the arm, and leading him so
slowly away, that a part of what followed was heard
by the two amused listeners, " modesty is so infallibly
the companion of merit, that ive who are engaged in
that high pursuit do not like to say any thing in our
own favour. You never detect a newspaper in the
weakness of extolling itself; but, between ourselves, I
may say, after a close examination of the condition of
the press in other countries, I have come to the con
clusion, that, for talents, taste, candour, philosophy,
genius, honesty, and truth, the press of the United
States stands at the very "

Here Mr. Dodge passed so far from the listeners,
that the rest of the speech became inaudible, though
from the well-established modesty of the man and the
editor, there can be little doubt of the manner in which
he concluded the sentence.

" It is said in Europe," observed John Effingham,
his fine face expressing the cool sarcasm in which he
was so apt to indulge, " that there are la vieille and la
Jeune France. I think we have now had pretty fair
specimens of old and young America ; the first dis
trusting every thing native,- even to a potatoe; and the
second distrusting nothing, and least of all, itself."
15*

174 HOME AS FOUND.

" There appears to be a sort of pendulum-uneasiness
in mankind," said Mrs. Bloomfield, " that keeps opinion
always vibrating around the centre of truth, for I think
it the rarest thing in the world to find man or woman
who has not a disposition, as soon as an error is aban
doned, to fly off into its opposite extreme. From be
lieving we had nothing worthy of a thought, there is
a set springing up who appear to have jumped to the
conclusion that we have every thing."

" Ay, this is one of the reasons that all the rest of
the world laugh at us."

" Laugh at us, Mr. Effmgham ! Even / had sup
posed the American name had, at last, got to be in
good credit in other parts of the world."

" Then even you, my dear Mrs. Bloomfield, are no
tably mistaken. Europe, it is true, is beginning to
give us credit for not being quite as bad as she once
thought us ; but we are far, very far, from being yet
admitted to the ordinary level of nations, as respects
goodness."

" Surely they give us credit for energy, enterprize,
activity "

" Qualities that they prettily term, rapacity, cunning,
and swindling ! I am far, very far, however, from
giving credit to all that it suits the interests and preju
dices of Europe, especially of our venerable kinswo
man, Old England, to circulate and think to the pre
judice of this country, which, in my poor judgment,
has as much substantial merit to boast of as any na
tion on earth ; though, in getting rid of a set of ancient
vices and follies, it has not had the sagacity to disco-
ver that it is fast falling into pretty tolerable — or if
you like it better — intolerable substitutes."

" What then do you deem our greatest error — our
weakest point?"

" Provincialisms, with their train of narrow preju
dices, and a disposition to set up mediocrity as perfec
tion, under the double influence of an ignorance that

HOME AS FOUND. 175

unavoidably arises from a want of models, and of the
'rresistible tendency to mediocrity, in a nation where
.he common mind so imperiously rules."

" But does not the common mind rule every where ?
Is not public opinion always stronger than law ?"

" In a certain sense, both these positions may be
true. But in a nation like this, without a capital, one
that is all provinces, in which intelligence and tastes
are scattered, this common mind wants the usual
direction, and derives its impulses from the force of
numbers, rather than from the force of knowledge.
Hence the fact, that the public opinion never or seldom
rises to absolute truth. I grant you that as a medioc
rity, it is well ; much better than common even ; but
it is still a mediocrity."

" I see the justice of your remark, and I suppose we
are to ascribe the general use of superlatives, which is
so very obvious, to these causes."

" Unquestionably ; men have gotten to be afraid to
speak the truth, when that truth is a little beyond the
common comprehension; and thus it is that you see
the fulsome flattery that all the public servants, as they
call themselves, resort to, in order to increase their
popularity, instead of telling the wholesome facts that
are needed."

" And what is to be the result ?"

" Heaven knows. While America is so much in
advance of other nations, in a freedom from prejudices
of the old school, it is fast substituting a set of preju
dices of its own, that are not without serious dangers.
We may live through it, and the ills of society may
correct themselves, though there is one fact that men
aces more evil than any thing I could have feared."

" You mean the political struggle between money
nnd numbers, that has so seriously manifested itself of
, ate !" exclaimed the quick-minded and intelligent Mrs.
Bloomiield.

" That has its dangers; but there is still another evil

176 HOME AS FOUND.

of greater magnitude. I allude to the very general
disposition to confine political discussions to political
men. Thus, the private citizen, who should presume
to discuss a political question, would be deemed fair
game for all who thought differently from himself. He
would be injured in his pocket, reputation, domestic
happiness, if possible ; for, in this respect, America is
much the most intolerant nation I have ever visited.
In all other countries, in which discussion is permitted
at all, there is at least the appearance of iair play,
whatever may be done covertly; but here, it seems to
be sufficient to justify falsehood, frauds, nay, barefaced
rascality, to establish that the injured party has had
the audacity to meddle with public questions, not being
what the public chooses to call a public man. It is
scarcely necessary to say that, when such an opinion
gets to be effective, it must entirely defeat the real
intentions of a popular government."

" Now you mention it," said Mrs. Bloomfield, " I
think I have witnessed instances of what you mean."

" Witnessed, dear Mrs. Bloomfield ! Instances are
to be seen as often as a man is found freeman enough
to have an opinion independent of party. It is not for
connecting himself with party that a man is denounced
in this country, but for daring to connect himself with
truth. Party will bear with party, but party will not
bear with truth. It is in politics as in war, regiments
or individuals may desert, and they will be received
by their late enemies with open arms, the honour of a
soldier seldom reaching to the pass of refusing succour
of any sort ; but both sides will turn and fire on the
countrymen who wish merely to defend their homes
and firesides."

" You draw disagreeable pictures of human nature,
Mr. Effingham."

"Merely because they are true, Mrs. Bloomfield.
Man is worse than the beasts, merely because he has
a code of right and wrong, w;hich he never respects.

HOME AS FOUND. 177

They talk of the variation of the compass, and even
pretend to calculate its changes, though no one can
explain the principle that causes the attraction or its
vagaries at all. So it is with men; they pretend to
look always at the right, though their eyes are con
stantly directed obliquely; and it is a certain calcula
tion to allow of a pretty wide variation — but here
comes Miss Effingham, singularly well attired, and
more beautiful than I have ever before seen her !"

The two exchanged quick glances, and then, as if
fearful of betraying to each other their thoughts, they
moved towards our heroine, to do the honours of the
reception.

CHAPTER XII.

" Haply, when I shall wed,

That lord, whose hand must take my plight, shall carry
Half my love with him, half my care and duty."

CORDELIA.

As no man could be more gracefully or delicately
polite than John Effingham, when the humour seized
him, Mrs. Bloomfield was struck with the kind and
gentlemanlike manner with which he met his young
kinswoman on this trying occasion, and the affection
ate tones of his voice, and the winning expression of
his eye, as he addressed her. Eve herself was not
unobservant of these peculiarities, nor was she slow in
comprehending the reason. She perceived at once
that he was acquainted with the state of things between
her and Paul. As she well knew the womanly fidelity
of Mrs. Bloomfield, she rightly enough conjectured
that the long observation of her cousin, coupled with
the few words accidentally overheard that evening,

178 HOME AS FOUND.

had even made him better acquainted with the tru6
condition of her feelings, than was the case with the
friend with whom she had so lately been conversing
on the subject.

Still Eve was not embarrassed by the conviction
that her secret was betrayed to so many persons. Her
attachment to Paul was not the impulse of girlish ca
price, but the warm affection of a woman, that haa
grown with time, was sanctioned by her reason, and
which, if it was tinctured with the more glowing ima
gination and ample faith of youth, was also sustained
by her principles and her sense of right. She knew
that both her father and cousin esteemed the man of
her own choice, nor did she believe the little cloud that
hung over his birth could do more than have a tempo
rary influence on his own sensitive feelings. She met
John Effingham, therefore, with a frank composure,
returned the kind pressure of his hand, with a smile
such as a daughter might bestow on an affectionate
parent, and turned to salute the remainder of the party,
with that lady-like ease which had got to be a part of
her nature.

" There goes one of the most attractive pictures that
humanity can offer," said John Effingham to Mrs.
Bloomfield, as Eve walked away; "a young, timid,
modest, sensitive girl, so strong in her principles, so
conscious of rectitude, so pure of thought, and so warm
in her affections, that she views her selection of a hus
band, as others view their acts of duty and religious
faith. With her love has no shame, as it has no weak
ness."

"Eve Effingham is as faultless as comports with
womanhood ; and yet I confess ignorance of my own
sex, if she receive Mr. Powis as calmly as she received
her cousin."

" Perhaps not, for in that case, she could scarcely
feel the passion. You perceive that he avoids oppres«
sing her with his notice, and that the meeting passes

HOME AS FOUND. 17Q

off without embarrassment. I do believe there is an
elevating principle in love, that, by causing us to wish
to be worthy of the object most prized, produces the
desired effects by stimulating exertion. There, now,
are two as perfect beings as one ordinarily meets with,
each oppressed by a sense of his or her unworthiness
to be the choice of the other."

" Does love, then, teach humility ; successful love,
too ?"

" Does it not ? It would be hardly fair to press this
matter on you, a married woman ; for, by the pandects
of American society, a man may philosophize on love,
prattle about it, trifle on the subject, and even analyze
the passion with a miss in her teens, and yet he shall
not allude to it, in a discourse with a matron. Well,
chacun & son gout; we are, indeed, a little peculiar in
our usages, and have promoted a good deal of village
coquetry, and the flirtations of the may-pole, to the
drawing-room."

" Is it not better that such follies should be confined
to youth, than that they should invade the sanctity of
married life, as I understand is too much the case else
where ?"

" Perhaps so ; though I confess it is easier to dispose
of a straight-forward proposition from a mother, a
father, or a commissioned friend, than to get rid of a
young lady, who, propria persona, angles on her own
account. While abroad, I had a dozen proposals "

" Proposals !" exclaimed Mrs. Bloomfield, holding
up both hands, and shaking her head incredulously.

" Proposals ! Why not, ma'am ? — am I more than
fifty ? am I not reasonably youthful for that period of
life, and have I not six or eight thousand a year "

" Eighteen, or you are much scandalized."

" Well, eighteen, if you will," coolly returned the
other, in whose eyes money was no merit, for he was
born to a fortune, and always treated it as a means,
and not as the end of life ; " every dollar is a mag*

180 HOME AS FOUND.

net, after one has turned forty. Do you suppose that
a single man, of tolerable person, well-born, and with
a hundred thousand francs of. rentes, could entirely
escape proposals from the ladies in Europe ?"

" This is so revolting to all our American notions,
that, though I have often heard of such things, I have
always found it difficult to believe them !"

" And is it more revolting for the friends of young
ladies to look out for them, on such occasions, than
that the young ladies should take the affair into their
own hands, as is practised quite as openly, here ?"

" It is well you are a confirmed bachelor, or decla
rations like these would mar your fortunes. I will
admit that the school is not as retiring and diffident as
formerly; for we are all ready enough to say that no
times are equal to our own times ; but I shall strenu
ously protest against your interpretation of the nature
and artlessness of an American girl."

" Artlessness !" repeated John Effingham, with a
slight lifting of the eye-brows ; " we live in an age
when new dictionaries and vocabularies are necessary
to understand each other's meaning. It is artlessness,
with a vengeance, to beset an old fellow of fifty, as
one would besiege a town. Hist ! — Ned is retiring
with his daughter, my dear Mrs. Bloomfield, and it will
not be long before I shall be summoned to a family
council. Well, we will keep the secret until it is pub
licly proclaimed."

John Effingham was right, for his two cousins left
the room together, and retired to the library, but in
a way to attract no particular attention, except in
those who were enlightened on the subject of what
had already passed that evening. When they were
alone, Mr. Effingham turned the key, and then he gave
a free vent to his paternal feelings.

Between Eve and her parent, there had always ex
isted a confidence exceeding that which it is common
to find between father and daughter. In one sense,

HOME AS FOUND. 181

.hey had been all in all to each other, and Eve had
never hesitated about pouring those feelings into his
breast, which, had she possessed another parent, would
more naturally have been confided to the affection of
a mother. When their eyes first met, therefore,
they were mutually beaming with an expression of
confidence and love, such as might, in a measure, have
been expected between two of the gentler sex. Mr.
Effingham folded his child to his heart, pressed her
there tenderly for near a minute in silence, and then
kissing her burning cheek he permitted her to look up.

" This answers all my fondest hopes, Eve" — he ex
claimed; "fulfils my most cherished wishes for thy
sake."

" Dearest sir !"

" Yes, my love, I have long secretly prayed that
such might be your good fortune ; for, of all the youths
we have met, at home or abroad, Paul Powis is the
one to whom I can consign you with the most con
fidence that he will cherish and love you as you de
serve to be cherished and loved !"

" Dearest father, nothing but this was wanting to
complete my perfect happiness."

Mr. Effingham kissed his daughter again, and he
was then enabled to pursue the conversation with
greater composure.

" Powis and I have had a full explanation," he said,
" though in order to obtain it, I have been obliged to
give him strong encouragement "

" Father !"

"Nay, my love, your delicacy and feelings nave
been sufficiently respected, but he has so much diffi
dence of himself, and permits the unpleasant circum
stances connected with his birth to weigh so much on
his mind, that I have been compelled to tell him, what
[am sure you will approve, that we disregard family
connections, and look only to the merit of the indi
vidual."

VOL. II. 16

182 HOME AS FOUND.

" I hope, father, nothing was said to give Mr. Powis
reason to suppose we did not deem him every way our
equal/'

" Certainly not. He is a gentleman, and I can claim
to he no more. There is but one thing in which con
nections ought to influence an American marriage,
where the parties are suited to each other in the main
requisites, and that is to ascertain that neither should be
carried, necessarily, into associations for which their
habits have given them too much and too good tastes
to enter into. A icoman, especially, ought never to be
transplanted from a polished to an unpolished circle ;
for, when this is the case, if really a lady, there will
be a dangerous clog on her affection for her husband.
This one great point assured, I see no other about
which a parent need feel concern."

" Powis, unhappily, has no connections in this coun
try ; or none with whom he has any communications ;
and those he has in England are of a class to do him
credit."

" We have been conversing of this, and he has mani
fested so much proper feeling that it has even raised
him in my esteem. I knew his father's family, and
must have known his father, I think, though there were
two or three Asshetons of the name of John. It is a
highly respectable family of the middle states, and be
longed formerly to the colonial aristocracy. Jack Ef-
fingham's mother was an Assheton."

"Of the same blood, do you think, sir? I remem
bered this wThen Mr. Powis mentioned his father's name,
and intended to question cousin Jack on the subject."

"Now you speak of it, Eve, there must be a rela
tionship between them. Do you suppose that our kins
man is acquainted with the fact that Paul is, in truth,
an Assheton?"

Eve told her father that she had never spoken with
their relative on the subject, at all.

u Then ring the bell, and we will ascertain at onca

HOME AS FOUND. 183

now far my conjecture is true. You can have no
false delicacy, my child, about letting your engage
ment be known to one as near and as dear to us, as
John."

" Engagement, father !"

" Yes, engagement," returned the smiling parent,
" for such I already deem it. I have ventured, in youi
behalf, to plight your troth to Paul Powis, or what is
almost equal to it ; and in return I can give you back
as many protestations of unequalled fidelity, and eter
nal constancy, as any reasonable girl can ask."

Eve gazed at her father m a way to show that re
proach was mingled with fondness, for she felt that, in
this instance, too much of the precipitation of the other
sex had been manifested in her affairs ; still, superior
to coquetry and affectation, and much too warm in
her attachments to be seriously hurt, she kissed the
hand she held, shook her head reproachfully, even
while she smiled, and did as had been desired.

" You have, indeed, rendered it important to us to
know more of Mr. Powis, my beloved father," she
said, as she returned to her seat, " though I could wish
matters had not proceeded quite so fast."

" Nay, all I promised was conditional, and depend
ent on yourself. You have nothing to do, if I have
said too much, but to refuse to ratify the treaty made
by your negotiator." j

" You propose an impossibility," said Eve, taking
the hand, again, that she had so lately relinquished,
and pressing it warmly between her own ; " the nego
tiator is too much revered, has too strong a right to
command, and is too much confided in to be thus dis
honoured. Father, I will, I do, ratify'all you have, all
you can promise in my behalf."

"Even, if I annul the treaty, darling?"

" Even, in that case, father. I will marry none with
out your consent, and have so absolute a confidence in
your tender care of me, that I do not even hesitate to
say, I will marry him to whom you contract me."

184 HUME AS FOUND.

" Bless you, bless you, Eve ; I do believe you, fo7
such have I ever found you, since thought has had any
control over your actions. Desire Mr. John Effing-
ham to come hither" — then, as the servant closed
the door, he continued, — " and such I believe you will
continue to be until your dying day."

" Nay, reckless, careless father, you forget that you
yourself have been instrumental in transferring my
duty and obedience to another. What if this sea-mon
ster should prove a tyrant, throw off the mask, and
show himself in his real colours 1 Are you prepared,
then, thoughtless, precipitate, parent" — Eve kissed Mr.
Effingham's cheek with childish playfulness, as she
spoke, her heart swelling with happiness the whole
time, "to preach obedience where obedience would
then be due?'

" Hush, precious — I hear the step of Jack ; he must
not catch us fooling in this manner."

Eve rose ; and when her kinsman entered the room,
she held out her hand kindly to him, though it was
with an averted face and a tearful eye.

" It is time I was summoned," said John Effingham,
after he had drawn the blushing girl to him and kissed
her forehead, " for what between tete ci tetes with
young fellows, and tete a tetes with old fellows, this
evening, I began to think myself neglected. I hope I
am still in time to render my decided disapprobation
available ?"

" Cousin Jack !" exclaimed Eve, with a look of re
proachful mockery, "you are the last person who
ought to speak of disapprobation, for you have done
little else but sing the praises of the applicant, since
you first met him."

" Is it even so ? then, like others, I must submit to
the consequences of my own precipitation and false
conclusions. Am I summoned to inquire how many
thousands a year I shall add to the establishment of the
new couple 1 As I hate business, say five at once :

HOME AS FOUND. 185

and when the papers are ready, I will sign them, with
out reading."

" Most generous cynic," cried Eve, " I would I
dared, now, to ask a single question !"

" Ask it without scruple, young lady, for this is the
day of your independence and power. I am mistaken
in the man, if Powis do not prove to be the captain
of his own ship, in the end."

" Well, then, in whose behalf is this liberality really
meant ; mine, or that of the gentleman ?"

" Fairly enough put," said John Effingham, laugh
ing, again drawing Eve towards him and saluting her
cheek ; " for if I were on the rack, I could scarcely say
which I love best, although you have the consolation
of knowing, pert one, that you get the most kisses."

" I am almost in the same state of feeling myself,
John, for a son of my own could scarcely be dearer
to me than Paul."

" I see, indeed, that I must marry," said Eve hastily,
dashing the tears of delight from her eyes, for what
could give more delight than to hear the praises of her
beloved, " if I wish to retain my place in your affec
tions. But, father, we forget the question you were to
put to cousin Jack."

" True, love. John, your mother was an Assheton ?"

" Assuredly, Ned ; you are not to learn my pedigree
at this time of day, I trust."

" We are anxious to make out a relationship between
you and Paul ; can it not be done ?"

" I would give half my fortune, Eve consenting,
were it so! — What reason is there for supposing it
probable, or even possible ?'

" You know that he bears the name of his friend,
and adopted parent, while that of his family is really
Assheton."

" Assheton !" exclaimed the other, in a way to show
lhat this w'as the first he had ever heard of the fact.

" Certainly ; and as there is but one family of this
16*

]86 HOME AS FOUND.

name, which is a little peculiar in the spelling — foi
here it is spelt by Paul himself, on this card — we have
thought that he must be a relation of yours. I hope
\ve are not to be disappointed."

" Assheton ! — It is, as you say, an unusual name ;
nor is there more than one family that bears it in this
country, to my knowledge. Can it be possible that
Powis is truly an Assheton ?"

" Out of all doubt," Eve eagerly exclaimed ; " we
have it from his owrn mouth. His father was an
Assheton, and his mother was "

" Who ]" demanded John Effingham, with a vehe
mence that startled his companions.

" Nay, that is more than I can tell you, for he did
not mention the family name of his mother ; as she
was a sister of Lady Dunluce, however, who is the
wife of General Ducie, the father of our guest, it is
probable her name was Dunluce."

" I remember no relative that has made such a mar
riage, or who can have made such a marriage ; and
yet do I personally and intimately know every Asshe
ton in the country."

Mr. Effingham and his daughter looked at each
other, for it at once struck them all painfully, that there
must be Asshetons of another family.

" Were it not for the peculiar manner in which this
name is spelled," said Mr. Effingham, " I could suppose
that there are Asshetons of whom we know nothing,
but it is difficult to believe that there can be such per
sons of a respectable family of whom we never heard,
for Powis said his relatives were of the Middle
States "

" And that his mother was called Dunluce ?" de
manded John Effingham earnestly, for he too appeared
to wish to discover an affinity between himself and
Paul,

" Nay, father, this I think he did not say ; though it
is quite probable ; for the title of his aunt is an ancient

HOME AS FOUND. 187

barony, and those ancient baronies usually became tho
family name."

" In this you must be mistaken, Eve, since he men
tioned that the right was derived through his mother's
mother, who was an Englishwoman."

" Why not send for him at once, and put the ques
tion ?" said the simple-minded Mr. Effingham ; "next
to having him for my own son, it would give me plea
sure, John, to learn that he was lawfully entitled to that
which I know you have done in his behalf."

" That is impossible," returned John Effingham. " 1
am an only child, and as for cousins through my mo
ther, there are so many who stand in an equal degree
of affinity to me, that no one in particular can be my
.heir-at-law. If there were, I am an Effingham ; my
estate came from Effinghams, and to an Effingham it
should descend in despite of all the Asshetons in Ame
rica."

" Paul Powis included !" exclaimed Eve, raising a
finger reproachfully.

" True, to him I have left a legacy ; but it was to a
Powis, and not to an Assheton."

" And yet he declares himself legally an Assheton,
and not a Powis."

" Say no more of this, Eve ; it is unpleasant to me.
I hate the name of Assheton, though it was my mo
ther's, and could wish never to hear it again."

Eve and her father were mute, for their kinsman,
usually so proud and self-restrained, spoke with sup
pressed emotion, and it was plain that, for some hidden
cause, he felt even more than he expressed. The idea
that there should be any thing about Paul that could
render him an object of dislike to one as dear to her
as her cousin, was inexpressibly painful to the former,
and she regretted that the subject had ever been intro
duced. Not so with her father. Simple, direct, and
full of truth, Mr. Effingham rightly enough believed
•.hat mysteries in a family could lead to no good, and

188 HOME AS FOUND.

he repeated his proposal of sending for Paul, and hav
ing the matter cleared up at once.

" You are too reasonable, Jack," he concluded, " to
let an antipathy against a name that was your mothers,
interfere with your sense of right. I know that some
unpleasant questions arose concerning your succession
to my aunt's fortune, but that \vas all settled in your
favour twenty years ago, and I had thought to your
entire satisfaction."

" Unhappily, family quarrels are ever the most bitter,
and usually they are the least reconcileable," returned
John Effingham, evasively. — " I would that this young
man's name were any thing but Assheton ! I do not
wish to see Eve plighting her faith at the altar, to any
one bearing that accursed name !"

" I shall plight my faith, if ever it be done, dear cou
sin John, to the man, and not to his name."

" No, no — he must keep the appellation of Powis,
by which we have all learned to love him, and to
which he has done so much credit."

" This is very strange, Jack, for a man who is usu
ally as discreet and as well regulated as yourself. I
again propose that we send for Paul, and ascertain
precisely to what branch of this so-much-disliked
family he really belongs."

"No, father, if you love me, not now!" cried Eve,
arresting Mr. Effingham's hand as it touched the bell-
cord; "it would appear distrustful, and even cruel,
were we to enter into such an inquiry so soon. Powis
might think we valued his family, more than we do
himself."

" Eve is right, Ned ; but I will not sleep without
learning all. There is an unfinished examination of
the papers left by poor Monday, and I will take an
occasion to summon Paul to its completion, when an
opportunity will offer to renew the subject of his own
history ; for it was at the other investigation that he
first spoke frankly to me, concerning himself."

HOME AS FOUND. 189

: " Do so, cousin Jack, and let it be at once," said Eve,
earnestly. " I can trust you with Powis alone, for I
know how much you respect and esteem him in youi
heart. See, it is already ten."

" But, he will naturally wish to spend the close of
an evening like this engaged in investigating something
vef y different from Mr. Monday's tale," returned her
cousin ; the smile with which he spoke chasing away
the look of chilled aversion that had so lately dark
ened his noble features.

" No, not to-night," answered the blushing Eve. " I
have confessed weakness enough for one day. To
morrow, if you will — if he will, — but not to-night. I
shall retire with Mrs. Hawker, who already complains
of fatigue ; and you will send for Powis, to meet you
in your own room, without unnecessary delay."

Eve kissed John Effingham coaxingly, and as they
walked together out of the library, she pointed towards
the door that led to the chambers. Her cousin laugh
ingly complied, and when in his own room, he sent a
message to Paul to join him.

"Now, indeed, may I call you a kinsman," said
John Effingham, rising to receive the young man,
towards whom he advanced, with ex'tended hands, in
his most winning manner. " Eve's frankness and your
own discernment have made us a happy family !"

" If any thing could add to the felicity of being ac
ceptable to Miss Effingham," returned Paul, struggling
to command his feelings, " it is the manner in which
her father and yourself have received my poor offers."

" Well, we will now speak of it no more. I saw
from the first which way things were tending, and it
was my plain-dealing that opened the eyes of Temple-
more to the impossibility of his ever succeeding, by
which means his heart has been kept from breaking."

" Oh ! Mr. Effingham, Templemore never loved Eve
Effingham ! I thought so once, and he thought so,
too ; but it could not have been a love like mine."

190 HOME AS FOUND.

"It certainly differed in the essential circumstance
of reciprocity, which, in itself, singularly qualifies the
passion, so far as duration is concerned. Templemore
did not exactly know the reason why he preferred
Eve ; but, having seen so much of the society in
which he lived, I wras enabled to detect the cause.
Accustomed to an elaborate sophistication, the singu
lar union of refinement and nature caught his fancy ;
for the English seldom see the last separated from vul
garity ; and when it is found, softened by a high intel
ligence and polished manners, it has usually great
attractions for the biases"

" He is fortunate in having so readily found a sub
stitute for Eve Effingham !"

" This change is not unnatural, neither. In the first
place, I, with this truth-telling tongue, destroyed all
hope, before he had committed himself by a declara
tion ; and then Grace Van Cortlandt possesses the
great attraction of nature, in a degree quite equal to
that of her cousin. Besides, Templemore, though a
gentleman, and a brave man, and a worthy one, is not
remarkable for qualities of a very extraordinary kind.
He will be as happy as is usual for an Englishman of
his class to be, and he has no particular right to expect
more. I sent for you, however, less to talk of love,
than to trace its unhappy consequences in this affair,
revealed by the papers of poor Monday. It is time
W7e acquitted ourselves of that trust. Do me the
favour to open the dressing-case that stands on the
toilet-table ; you will find in it the key that belongs to
the bureau, where I have placed the secretary that
contains the papers."

Paul did as desired. The dressing-case was compli
cated and large, having several compartments, none
of wrhich were fastened. In the first opened, he sawr a
miniature of a female so beautiful, that his eye rested on
it, as it might be, by a fascination. Notwithstanding
some difference produced by the fashions of different

HOME AS FOUND. 191

periods, the resemblance to the object of his love, was
obvious at a glance. Borne away by the pleasure of
the discovery, and actually believing that he saw a pic
ture of Eve, drawn in a dress that did not in a great
degree vary from the present attire, fashion having
undergone no very striking revolution in the last twenty
years, he exclaimed —

" This is indeed a treasure, Mr. Effingham, and
most sincerely do I envy you its possession. It is like,
and yet, in some particulars, it is unlike — it scarcely
does Miss Effingham justice about the nose and fore
head !"

John Effingham started when he saw the miniature
in Paul's hand, but recovering himself, he smiled at the
eager delusion of his young friend, and said with per
fect composure —

" It is not Eve, but her mother. The two features
you have named in the former came from my family ;
but in all the others, the likeness is almost identical."

" This then is Mrs. Effingham !" murmured Paul,
gazing on the face of the mother of his love, with a
respectful melancholy, and an interest that was rather
heightened than lessened by a knowledge of the truth.
" She died young, sir V

" Quite ; she can scarcely be said to have become
an angel too soon, for she was always one."

This was said with a feeling that did not escape
Paul, though it surprised him. There were six or seven
miniature-cases in the compartment of the dressing-
box, and supposing that the one wrhich lay uppermost
belonged to the miniature in his hand, he raised it, and
opened the lid with a view to replace the picture of
Eve's mother, with a species of pious reverence. In
stead of finding an empty case, however, another
miniature met his eye. The exclamation that now
escaped the young man was one of delight and sur
prise.

" That must be my grandmother, with whom you

192 HOME AS FOUND.

are in such raptures, at present," said John Effingharn
laughing — " I was comparing it yesterday with the
picture of Eve, which is in the Russia-leather case, that
you will find somewhere there. I do not wonder,
however, at your admiration, for she was a beauty in
her day, and no woman is fool enough to be painted
after she grows ugly."

" Not so — not so — Mr. Effingham ! This is the min
iature I lost in the Montauk, and which I had given up
as booty to the Arabs. It has, doubtless, found its way
into your state-room, and has been put among your
effects by your man, through mistake. It is very pre
cious to me, for it is nearly every memorial I possess
of my own mother !"

" Your mother !" exclaimed John Effingham rising.
" I think there must be some mistake, for I examined
all those pictures this very morning, and it is the first
time they have been opened since our arrival from
Europe. It cannot be the missing picture."

" Mine it is certainly ; in that I cannot be mis
taken !"

" It would be odd indeed, if one of my grand
mothers, for both are there, should prove to be your
mother. — Powis, will you have the goodness to let me
see the picture you mean."

Paul brought the miniature and a light, placing both
before the eyes of his friend.

" That !" exclaimed John Effingham, his voice sound
ing harsh and unnatural to the listener, — " that picture
like your mother !"

" It is her miniature — the. miniature that was trans
mitted to me, from those who had charge of my child
hood. I cannot be mistaken as to the countenance, or
the dress."

" And your father's name was Assheton ?"
" Certainly — John Assheton, of the Asshetons of
Pennsylvania."

John Effingham groaned aloud ; when Paul stepped

HOME AS FOUND. 193

back equally shocked and surprised, he saw that the
face of his friend was almost livid, and that the hand
which held the picture shook like the aspen.

" Are you unwell, dear Mr. Effingham ?"

" No — no — 'tis impossible ! This lady never had a
child. Powis, you have been deceived by some fancied,
or some real resemblance. This picture is mine, and
has not been out of my possession these five and twenty
years."

" Pardon me, sir, it is the picture of my mother, and
no other; the very picture lost in the.Montauk."

The gaze that John Effingham cast upon the young
man was ghastly ; and Paul was about to ring the bell,
but a gesture of denial prevented him.

" See," said John Effingham, hoarsely, as he touched
a spring in the setting, and exposed to view the initials
of two names interwoven with hair — " is this, too,
yours 1"

Paul looked surprised and disappointed.

" That certainly settles the question ; my miniature
had no such addition ; and yet I believe that sweet and
pensive countenance to be the face of my own beloved
mother, and of no one else."

John Effingham struggled to appear calm ; and, re
placing the pictures, he took the key from the dressing
case, and, opening the bureau, he took out the secretary.
This he signed for Powis, who had the key, to open ;
throwing himself into a chair, though every thing was
done mechanically, as if his mind and body had little
or no connection with each other.

" Some accidental resemblance has deceived you as
to the miniature," he said, while Paul was looking for
the proper number among the letters of Mr. Monday.
" No — no — that cannot be the picture of your mother.
She left no child. Assheton did you say, was the name
of your father ]"

"Assheton — John Assheton — about that, at least,
there can have been no mistake. This is the num-

VOL. II. 17

194 HOME AS FOUND.

ber at which we left off — will you, sir, or shall I,
read ?"

The other made a sign for Paul to read ; looking, at
the same time, as if it were impossible for him to dis
charge that duty himself.

" This is a letter from the woman who appears to
have been entrusted with the child, to the man Dowse,"
said Paul, first glancing his eyes over the page, — " it
appears to be little else but gossip — ha ! — what is this,
I see ?"

John Effingham raised himself in his chair, and he
sat gazing at Paul, as one gazes who expects some
extraordinary developement, though of what nature he
knew not.

" This is a singular passage," Paul continued — " so
much so as to need elucidation. ' I have taken the
child with me to get the picture from the jeweller, who
has mended the ring, and the little urchin knew it at a
glance.' "

" What is there remarkable in that ? Others beside
ourselves have had pictures ; and this child knows its
own better than you."

" Mr. Effingham, such a thing occurred to myself!
It is one of those early events of which I still retain,
have ever retained, a vivid recollection. Though little
more than an infant at the time, well do I recollect to
have been taken in this manner to a jeweller's, and
the delight I felt at recovering my mother's picture,
that which is now lost, after it had not been seen for a
month or two."

"Paul Blunt — Powis — Assheton" — said John Ef
fingham, speaking so hoarsely as to be nearly unintel
ligible, "remain here a few minutes — I will rejoin
you."

John Effingham arose, and, notwithstanding he ral
lied all his powers, it was with extreme difficulty he
succeeded in reaching the door, steadily rejecting the
offered assistance of Paul, who was at a loss what 4o
think of so much agitation in a man usually so self-pos-

HOME AS FOUND. 195

sessed and tranquil. When out of the room, John Ef-
fingham did better, and he proceeded to the library,
followed by his own man, whom he had ordered to ac
company him with a light.

" Desire Captain Ducie to give me the favour of his
company for a moment," he then said, motioning to
the servant to withdraw. " You will not be needed
any longer."

It was but a minute before Captain Ducie stood be
fore him. This gentleman was instantly struck with
the pallid look, and general agitation of the person he
had come to meet, and he expressed an apprehension
that he was suddenly taken ill. But a motion of the
hand forbade his touching the bell-cord, and he waited
in silent wonder at the scene which he had been so un
expectedly called to witness.

" A glass of that water, if you please, Captain Du
cie," said John Effingham, endeavouring to smile with
gentlemanlike courtesy, as he made the request, though
the effort caused his countenance to appear ghastly
again. A little recovered by this beverage, he said
more steadily —

" You are the cousin of Powis, Captain Ducie."

" We are sisters' children, sir."

" And your mother is "

" Lady Dunluce — a peeress in her own right."

"But, what — her family name?"

" Her own family name has been sunk in that of my
father, the Ducies claiming to be as old and as honour
able a family, as that from which my mother inherits
her rank. Indeed the Dunluce barony has gone through
s<J> many names, by means of females, that I believe
there is no intention to revive the original appellation
of the family which was first summoned."

" You mistake me — your mother — when she mar
ried — was "

" Miss Warrender."

" I thank you, sir, and will trouble you no longer,"

196 HOME AS FOUND.

returned John Effingham, rising and struggling to make
his manner second the courtesy of his words — " I have
troubled you, abruptly — incoherently I fear — your

arm "

Captain Ducie stepped hastily forward, and was just
in time to prevent the other from falling senseless on
the floor, by receiving him in his own arms.

CHAPTER XIII.

What 's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her."

HAMLET.

THE next morning, Paul and Eve were alone in that
library which had long been the scene of the confiden
tial communications of the Effingham family. Eve
had been weeping, nor were Paul's eyes entirely free
from the signs of his having given way to strong sen
sations. Still happiness beamed in the countenance of
each, and the timid but affectionate glances with which
our heroine returned the fond, admiring look of her
lover, were anything but distrustful of their future feli
city. Her hand was in his, and it was often raised to
his' lips, as they pursued the conversation.

" This is so wonderful," exclaimed Eve, after one of
the frequent musing pauses in which both indulged,
" that I can scarcely believe myself awake. That you,
Blunt, Powis, Assheton, should, after all, prove an
Effingham !"

" And that I, who have so long thought myself an
orphan, should find a living father, and he a man like
Mr. John Effingham !"

"I have long thought that something heavy lay at the
honest heart of cousin Jack — you will excuse me,Powisi

HOME AS TOUND. 197

but I shall need time to learn to call him by a namo
of greater respect."

" Call him always so, love, for I am certain it would
pain him to meet with any change in you. He is your
cousin Jack."

" Nay, he may some day unexpectedly become my
father too, as he has so wonderfully become yours,"
rejoined Eve, glancing archly at the glowing face of
the delighted young man ; " and then cousin Jack might
prove too familiar and disrespectful a term."

" So much stronger does your claim to him appear
than mine, that I think, when that blessed day shall
arrive, Eve, it will convert him into my cousin Jack,
instead of your father. But call him as you may, why
do you still insist on calling me Powis ?"

" That name will ever be precious in my eyes ! You
abridge me of my rights, in denying me a change of
name. Half the young ladies of the country marry
for the novelty of being called Mrs. Somebody else,
instead of the Misses they were, while I am condemned
to remain Eve Effingham for life."

" If you object to the appellation, I can continue to
call myself Powis. This has been done so long now
as almost to legalize the act."

"Indeed, no — you are an Effingham, and as an
Effingham ought you to be known. What a happy
lot is mine ! Spared even the pain of parting with my
old friends, at the great occurrence of my life, and
finding my married home the same as the home of my
childhood !"

" I owe every thing to you, Eve, name, happiness,
and even a home."

" I know not that. Now that it is known that you
are the great-grandson of Edward Effingham, I think
your chance of possessing the Wigwam would be quite
equal to my own, even were we to look different ways
in quest of married happiness. An arrangement of
tfiat nature would not be difficult to make, as John
17*

198 HOME AS FOUND.

Effingham might easily compensate a daughter for the
loss of her house and lands by means of those money-
yielding stocks and bonds, of which he possesses so
many."

" I view it differently. You were Mr. — my father's
heir — how strangely the word father sounds in unac
customed ears ! — But you were my father's chosen
heir, and I shall owe to you, dearest, in addition to the
treasures of your heart and faith, my fortune."

" Are you so very certain of this, ingrate ? — Did not
Mr. John Effingham — cousin Jack — adopt you as his
son even before he knew of the natural tie that ac
tually exists between you?'

" True, for I perceive that you have been made ac
quainted with most of that which has passed. But I
hope, that in telling you his own offer, Mr. — that my
father did not forget to tell you of the terms on which
it was accepted ?"

" He did you ample justice, for he informed me that
you stipulated there should be no altering of wills, but
that the unworthy heir already chosen, should still
remain the heir."

" And to this Mr—"

" Cousin Jack," said Eve, laughing, for the laugh
comes easy to the supremely happy.

" To this cousin Jack assented ?"

" Most true, again. The will would not have been
altered, for your interests were already cared for."

" And at the expense of yours, dearest Eve !"

" It would have been at the expense of my better
feelings, Paul, had it not been so. However, that will
can never do either harm or good to any, now."

" I trust it will remain unchanged, beloved, that I
may owe as much to you as possible."

Eve looked kindly at her betrothed, blushed even
deeper than the bloom which happiness had left on her
cheek, and smiled like one who knew more than she
cared to express.

HOME AS FOUND. 199

" What secret meaning is concealed behind that
ook of portentous signification ?"

" It means, Powis, that I have done a deed that is
almost criminal. I have destroyed a will."

" Not my father's !"

" Even so — but it was done in his presence, and if
not absolutely with his consent, with his knowledge.
When he informed me of your superior rights, I insisted
on its being done, at once, so, should any accident
occur, you will be heir at law, as a matter of course.
Cousin Jack affected reluctance, but I believe he slept
more sweetly, for the consciousness that this act of
justice had been done."

" I fear he slept little, as it was ; it was long past
midnight before I left him, and the agitation of his
spirits was such as to appear awful in the eyes of a
son !"

" And the promised explanation is to come, to re
new his distress ! Why make it at all 1 is it not enough
that we are certain that you are his child 1 and for
that, have we not the solemn assurance, the declara
tion of almost a dying man !"

"There should be no shade left over my mother's
fame. Faults there have been, somewhere, but it is
painful, oh ! how painful ! for a child to think evil of a
mother."

" On this head you are already assured. Your own
previous knowledge, and John Effingham's distinct
declarations, make your mother blameless."

" Beyond question ; but this sacrifice must be made
to my mother's spirit. It is now nine ; the breakfast-
bell will soon ring, and then we are promised the whole
of the melancholy tale. Pray with me, Eve, that it
may be such as will not wound the ear of a son !"

Eve took the hand of Paul within both of hers, arid
kissed it with a sort of holy hope, that in its exhibi
tion caused neither blush nor shame. Indeed so bound
together were these young hearts, so ample and con-

200 HOME AS FOUND.

fiding had been the confessions of both, and so pure
was their love, that neither regarded such a mani
festation of feeling, differently from what an acknow
ledgement of a dependence on any other sacred prin
ciple would have been esteemed. The bell now sum
moned them to the breakfast-table, and Eve, yielding
to her sex's timidity, desired Paul to precede her a few
minutes, that the sanctity of their confidence might not
be weakened by the observation of profane eyes.

The meal was silent ; the discovery of the previous
night, which had been made known to all in the house,
by the declarations of John Effingham as soon as he
was restored to his senses, Captain Ducie having inno
cently collected those within hearing to his succour,
causing a sort of moral suspense that weighed on the
vivacity if not on the comforts of the whole party,
the lovers alone excepted.

As profound happiness is seldom talkative, the meal
was a silent one, then ; and when it was ended, they
who had no tie of blood with the parties most con
cerned with the revelations of the approaching inter
view, delicately separated, making employments and
engagements that left the family at perfect liberty;
while those who had been previously notified that
their presence would be acceptable, silently repaired
to the dressing-room of John Effingham. The latter
party was composed of Mr. Effingham, Paul, and Eve,
only. The first passed into his cousin's bed-room,
where he had a private conference that lasted half an
hour. At the end of that time, the two others were
summoned to join him.

John Effingham was a strong-minded and a proud
man, his governing fault being the self-reliance that
indisposed him to throw himself on a greater power,
for the support, guidance, and counsel, that all need.
To humiliation before God, however, he was not un
used, and of late years it had got to be frequent with
him, and it was only in connexion with his fellow-crea-

HOME AS FOUND. 201

tures that his repugnance to admitting even of an
equality existed. He felt how much more just, intui
tive, conscientious even, were his own views than
those of mankind, in general ; and he seldom deigned
to consult with any as to the opinions he ought to en
tertain, or as to the conduct he ought to pursue. It is
scarcely necessary to say, that such a being was one
of strong and engrossing passions, the impulses fre
quently proving too imperious for the affections, or even
for principles. The scene that he was now compelled
to go through, was consequently one of sore mortifica
tion and self-abasement; and yet, feeling its justice no
less than its necessity, and having made up his mind
to discharge what had now become a duty, his very
pride of character led him to do it manfully, and with
no uncalled-for reserves. It was a painful and humili
ating task, notwithstanding ; and it required all the
self-command, all the sense of right, and all the clear
perception of consequences, that one so quick to dis
criminate could not avoid perceiving, to enable him to
go through it with the required steadiness and con
nexion.

John Effingham received Paul and Eve, seated in
an easy chair; for, while he could not be said to be
ill, it was evident that his very frame had been shaken
by the events and emotions of the few preceding hours.
He gave a hand to each, and, drawing Eve affection
ately to him, he imprinted a kiss on a cheek that was
burning, though it paled and reddened in quick succes
sion, the heralds of the tumultuous thoughts within. The
look he gave Paul was kind and welcome, while a
hectic spot glowed on each cheek, betraying that his
presence excited pain as well as pleasure. A long
pause succeeded this meeting, when John Effingham
broke the silence.

" There can now be no manner of question, my
dear Paul," he said, smiling affectionately but sadly,
ts he looked at the young man, " about your being my

202 HOME AS FOUND.

son. The letter written by John Assheton to your
mother, after the separation of your parents, would
settle that important point, had not the names, and the
other facts that have come to our knowledge, already
convinced me of the precious truth ; for precious and
very dear to me is the knowledge that I am the father
of so worthy a child. You must prepare yourself to
hear things that it will not be pleasant for a son to
listen "

" No, no — cousin Jack — dear cousin Jack !" cried
Eve, throwing herself precipitately into her kinsman's
arms, " we will hear nothing of the sort. It is suffi
cient that you are Paul's father, and we wish to know
no more — will hear no more."

" This is like yourself, Eve, but it \vill not answer
what I conceive to be the dictates of duty. Paul had
two parents ; and not the slightest suspicion ought to
rest on one of them, in order to spare the feelings of
the other. In showing me this kindness you are treat
ing Paul inconsiderately."

" I beg, dear sir, you will not think too much of me,
but entirely consult your own judgment — your own
sense of — in short, dear father, that you will consider
yourself before your son."

" I thank you, my children — what a word, and what
a novel sensation is this, for me, Ned ! — I feel all your
kindness, but if you would consult my peace of mind,
and wish me to regain my self-respect, you will allow
me to disburthen my soul of the weight that oppresses
it. This is strong language ; but, while I have no con
fessions of deliberate criminality, or of positive vice to
make, I feel it to be hardly too strong for the facts.
My tale will be very short, and I crave your patience,
Ned, while I expose my former weakness to these
young people." Here John Effirigham paused, as if
to recollect himself; then he proceeded with a seri
ousness of manner that caused every syllable he ut
tered to tell on the ears of his listeners. " It is well

HOME AS FOUND. 203

known to your father, Eve, though it will probabiy be
new to you," he said, " that I felt a passion for your
sainted mother, such as few men ever experience for
any of your sex. Your father and myself were suitors
for her favour at the same time, though I can scarce
ly say, Edward, that any feeling of rivalry entered into
the competition."

" You do me no more than justice, John, for if the
affection of my beloved Eve could cause me grief, it
was because it brought you pain."

" I had the additional mortification of approving of
the choice she made ; for, certainly, as respected her
own happiness, your mother did more wisely in con
fiding it to the regulated, mild, and manly virtues of
your father, than in placing her hopes on one as eccen
tric and violent as myself."

" This is injustice, John. You may have been posi
tive, and a little stern, at times, but never violent, and
least of all with a woman."

" Call it what you will, it unfitted me to make one
so meek, gentle, and yet high-souled, as entirely happy
as she deserved to be, and as you did make her, while
she remained on earth. I had the courage to stay and
learn that your father was accepted, (though the mar
riage was deferred two years in consideration for my
feelings,) and then with a heart, in which mortified
pride, wounded love, a resentment that was aimed ra
ther against myself than against your parents, I quit
ted home, with a desperate determination never to re
join my family again. This resolution I did not own
to myself, even, but it lurked in my intentions unowned,
festering like a mortal disease ; and it caused me, when
I burst away from the scene of happiness of which I
had been a compelled witness, to change my name,
and to make several inconsistent and extravagant ar
rangements to abandon my native country even."

" Poor John !" exclaimed his cousin, involuntarily,
* this would have been a sad blot on our felicity, had
we known it !"

204 HOME AS FOUND.

" I was certain of that, even when most writhing
under the blow you had so unintentionally inflicted,
Ned ; but the passions are tyrannical and inconsistent
masters. I took my mother's name, changed my ser
vant, and avoided those parts of the country where I
\vas known. At this time, I feared for my own rea
son, and the thought crossed my mind, that by making
a sudden marriage I might supplant the old passion,
which was so near destroying me, by some of that
gentler affection which seemed to render you so blest,
Edward."

" Nay, John, this was, itself, a temporary tottering
of the reasoning faculties."

" It was simply the effect of passions, over which
reason had never been taught to exercise a sufficient
influence. Chance brought rne acquainted with Miss
Warrender, in one of the southern states, and she pro
mised, as I fancied, to realize all my wild schemes of
happiness and resentment."

" Resentment, John ?"

" I fear I must confess it, Edward, though it were
anger against myself. I first made Miss Warrender's
acquaintance as John Assheton, and some months had
passed before I determined to try the fearful experi
ment I have mentioned. She was young, beautiful,
well-born, virtuous and good ; if she had a fault, it
was her high spirit — not high temper, but she was
high-souled and proud."

" Thank God, for this !" burst from the inmost soul
of Paul, with unrestrainable feeling.

" You have little to apprehend, my son, on the sub
ject of your mother's character; if not perfect, she
was wanting in no womanly virtue, and might, nay
ought to have made any reasonable man happy. My
offer was accepted, for I found her heart disengaged.
Miss Warrender was not affluent, and, in addition to
the other unjustifiable motives that influenced me, I
thought there would be a satisfaction in believing that

HOME AS FOUND. 205

I had been chosen for myself, rather lhan for my
wealth. Indeed, I had got to be distrustful and unge
nerous, and then I disliked the confession of the weak
ness that had induced me to change my name. The
simple, I might almost say, loose laws of this country,
on the subject of marriage, removed all necessity for
explanations, there being no bans nor license necessary
and the Christian name only being used in the cere
mony. We were married, therefore, but I was not so
unmindful of the rights of others, as to neglect to pro
cure a certificate, under a promise of secrecy, in my
own name. By going to the place where the cere-
rtfony was performed, you will also find the marriage
of John Effingham and Mildred Warrender duly regis
tered in the books of the church to which the offi
ciating clergyman belonged. So far, I did what justice
required, though, with a motiveless infatuation for
which I can now hardly account, which cannot be
accounted for, except by ascribing it to the inconsistent
cruelty of passion, I concealed my real name from her
with whom there should have been no concealment.
1 fancied, I tried to fancy I was no impostor, as I was
of the family I represented myself to be, by the mo
ther's side ; and I wished to believe that my peace
would easily be made when I avowed myself to be the
man I really was. I had found Miss Warrender and
her sister living with a wrell-intentioned but weak aunt,
and with no male relative to make those inquiries which
would so naturally have suggested themselves to per
sons of ordinary worldly prudence. It is true, I had
become known to them under favourable circum
stances, and they had good reason to believe me an
Assheton from some accidental evidence that I pos
sessed, which unanswerably proved my affinity to that
family, without betraying my true name. But there is
so little distrust in this country, that, by keeping at a
distance from the places in which I was personally
known, a life might have passed without exposure."
VOL. II. 18

208 HOME AS FOUND.

" This was all wrong, dear cousin Jack," said Eve,
taking his hand and affectionately kissing it, white her
face kindled with a sense of her sex's rights, " and I
should be unfaithful to my womanhood were I to say
otherwise. You had entered into the most solemn of
all human contracts, and evil is the omen when such
an engagement is veiled by any untruth. But, still, one
would think you might have been happy with a vritu-
ous and affectionate wife !"

'< Alas ! it is but a hopeless experiment to marry one,
while the heart is still yearning towards another. Con
fidence came too late ; for, discovering my unhappiness,
Mildred extorted a tardy confession from me ; a con
fession of all but the concealment of the true name ;
and justly wounded at the deception of which she had
been the dupe, and yielding to the impulses of a high
and generous spirit, she announced to me that she was
unwilling to continue the wife of any man on such
terms. We parted, and I hastened into the south
western states, where I passed the next twelvemonth
in travelling, hurrying from place to place, in the vain
hope of obtaining peace of mind. I plunged into the
prairies, and most of the time mentioned was lost to
me as respects the world, in the company of hunters
and trappers."

" This, then, explains your knowledge of that sec
tion of the country," exclaimed Mr. Effingham, " for
which I have never been able to account ! We thought
you among your old friends in Carolina, all that time."*

" No one knew where I had secreted myself, for I
passed under another feigned name, and had no ser
vant, even. I had, however, sent an address to Mil
dred, where a letter would find me ; for, I had begun
to feel a sincere affection for her, though it mighJ
not have amounted to passion, and looked forwai\
to being reunited, when her wounded feelings haa
time to regain their tranquillity. The obligations of
wedlock are too serious to be lightly thrown aside, and

HOME AS FOUND. 207

I felt persuaded that neither of us would be satisfied
in the end, without discharging the duties of the state
into which we had entered."

" And why did you not hasten to your poor wife,
cousin Jack," Eve innocently demanded, " as soon as
you returned to the settlements V

"Alas! my dear girl, I found letters at St. Louis
announcing her death. Nothing was said of any child,
nor did I in the least suspect that I was about to be
come a father. When Mildred died, I thought all the
ties, all the obligations, all the traces of my ill-judged
marriage were extinct ; and the course taken by her
relations, of whom, in this country, there remained
very few, left me no inclination to proclaim it. By
observing silence, I continued to pass as a bachelor,
of course ; though had there been any apparent reason
for avowing what had occurred, I think no one who
knows me, can suppose I would have shrunk from
doing so."

" May I inquire, my dear sir," Paul asked, with a
timidity of manner that betrayed how tenderly he felt
it necessary to touch on the subject at all — " may I
inquire, my dear sir, what course was taken by my
mother's relatives'?"

" I never knew Mr. Warrender, my wife's brother,
but he had the reputation of being a haughty and ex
acting man. His letters were not friendly ; scarcely
tolerable; for he affected to believe I had given a
false address at the west, when I was residing in the
middle states, and he threw out hints that to me were
then inexplicable, but which the letters left with me,
by Paul, have sufficiently explained. I thought him
cruel and unfeeling at the time, but he had an excuse
for his conduct."

" Which was, sir ?" Paul eagerly inquired.

" I perceive by the letters you have given me, my
son, that your mother's family had imbibed the opi
nion, that I was John Assheton, of Lancaster, a man

208 HOME AS FOUND.

of singular humours, who had made an unfortunate
marriage in Spain, and whose wife, I believe, is still
living in Paris, though lost to herself and her friends.
My kinsman lived retired, and never recovered the
blow. As he was one of the only persons of the name,
who could have married your mother, her relatives
appear to have taken up the idea that he had been
guilty of bigamy, and of course that Paul \vas illegiti
mate. Mr. Warrender, by his letters, appears even to
have had an interview with this person, and, on men
tioning his wife, was rudely repulsed from the house.
It was a proud family, and Mildred being dead, the
concealment of the birth of her child was resorted to,
as a means of averting a fancied disgrace. As for
myself, I call the all-seeing eye of God to witness, that
the thought of my being a parent never crossed my
mind, until I learned that a John Assheton was the
father of Paul, and that the miniature of Mildred
Warrender, that I received at the period of our en
gagement, was the likeness of his mother. The simple
declaration of Captain Ducie concerning the family
name of his mother, removed all doubt."

" But, cousin Jack, did not the mention of Lady
Dunluce, of the Ducies, and of Paul's connections,
excite curiosity ?"

" Concerning what, dear ? I could have no curi
osity about a child of whose existence I was ignorant.
I did know that the Warrenders had pretensions to
both rank and fortune in England, but never heard the
title, and cared nothing about money that would not,
probably, be Mildred's. Of General Ducie I never
even heard, as he married after my separation, and
subsequently to the receipt of my brother-in-law's let
ters, I wished to forget the existence of the family. I
went to Europe, and remained abroad seven years,
and as this was at a time when the continent was
closed against the English, I was not in a way to hear
any thing on the subject. On my return, my wife's

HOME AS FOUND. 209

aunt was dead ; the last of my wife's brothers was
dead ; her sister must then have been Mrs. Ducie ; no
one mentioned the Warrenders, all traces of whom
were nearly lost in this country, and to me the subject
was too painful to be either sought or dwelt on. It is
a curious fact, that, in 1829, during our late visit to the
old world, I ascended the Nile with General Ducie
for a travelling companion. We met at Alexandria,
and went to the cataracts and returned in company.
He knew me as John Effingham, an American- travel
ler of fortune, if of no particular merit, and I knew
him as an agreeable English general officer. He had
the reserve of an Englishman of rank, and seldom
spoke of his family, and it was only on our return, that
I found he had letters from his wife, Lady Dunluce ;
but little did I dream that Lady Dunluce was Mabel
Warrender. How often are we on the very verge of
important information, and yet live on in ignorance
and obscurity! The Ducies appear finally to have
arrived at the opinion that the marriage was legal, and
that no reproach rests on the birth of Paul, by the in
quiries made concerning the eccentric John Assheton."

" They fancied, in common writh my uncle Warren
der, for a long time, that the John Assheton whom you
have mentioned, sir," said Paul, " was my father. But
some accidental information, at a late day, convinced
them of their error, and then they naturally enough
supposed that it was the only other John Assheton that
could be heard of, who passes, and probably with suf
ficient reason, for a bachelor. This latter gentleman
I have myself always supposed to be my father, though
he has treated two or three letters I have written to
him, with the indifference with which one would be
apt to treat the pretensions of an impostor. Pride has
prevented me from attempting to renew the correspon
dence lately."

" It is John Assheton of Bristol, my mother's bro
ther's son, as inveterate a bachelor as is to be found in
18*

210 HOME AS FOUND.

the Union !" said John Effingham, smiling, in spite of
the grave subject and deep emotions that had so lately
been uppermost in his thoughts. " He must have sup
posed your letters were an attempt at mystification on
the part of some of his jocular associates, and I am
surprised that he thought it necessary to answer them
at all."

" He did answer but one, arid that reply certainly
had something of the character you suggest, sir. I
freely forgive him, now I understand the truth, though
his apparent contempt gave me many a bitter pang
at the time. I saw Mr. Assheton once in public, and
observed him well, for, strange as it is, I have been
thought to resemble him."

" Why strange ? Jack Assheton and myself have,
or rather had a strong family likeness to each other,
and, though the thought is new to me, I can now easily
trace this resemblance to myself. It is rather an
Assheton than an Effingham look, though the latter is
not wanting."

" These explanations are very clear and satisfactory,"
observed Mr. Effingham, " and leave little doubt that
Paul is the child of John Effingham and Mildred War-
render ; but they would be beyond all cavil, were the
infancy of the boy placed in an equally plain point of
view, and could the reasons be known why the War-
randers abandoned him to the care of those who
yielded him up to Mr. Powis."

" I see but little obscurity in that," returned John
Effingham. " Paul is unquestionably the child referred
to in the papers left by poor Monday, to the care of
whose mother he was intrusted, until, in his fourth
year, she yielded him to Mr. Powis, to get rid of trou
ble and expense, while she kept the annuity granted by
Lady Dunluce. The names appear in the concluding
letters ; and had \ve read the the latter through at first,
we should earlier have arrived at the same conclusion.
Could we find the man called Dowse, who appears to

HOME AS FOUND. 211

have instigated the fraud, and who married Mrs. Mon
day, the whole thing would be explained."

" Of this I am aware," said Paul, for he and John
Effingham had perused the remainder of the Monday
papers together, after the fainting fit of the latter, as
soon as his strength would admit ; "and Captain Truck
is now searching for an old passenger of his, who I
think will furnish the clue. Should we get this evi
dence, it would settle all legal questions."

" Such questions will never be raised," said John
Effingham, holding out his hand affectionately to his
son ; " you possess the marriage certificate given to
your mother, and I avow myself to have been the per
son therein styled John Assheton. This fact I have
endorsed on the back of the certificate ; while here is
another given to me in my proper name, with the en
dorsement made by the clergyman that I passed by
another name, at the ceremony."

" Such a man, cousin Jack, was unworthy of his
cloth !" said Eve with energy.

" I do not think so, my child. He was innocent of the
original deception ; this certificate was given after the
death of my wife, and might do good, whereas it could
do no harm. The clergyman in question is now a
bishop, and is still living. He may give evidence if
necessary, to the legality of the marriage."

" And the clergyman by whom I was baptized is also
alive," cried Paul, " and has never lost sight of me.
He was, in part, in the confidence of my mother's
family, and even after I was adopted by Mr. Powis,
he kept me in view as one of his little Christians as he
termed me. It was no less a person than Dr. ."

" This alone would make out the connection and
identity," said Mr. Effingham, " without the aid of the
Monday witnesses. The whole obscurity has arisen
from John's change of name, and his ignorance of the
fact that his wife had a child. The Ducies appear to
nave had plausible reasons, too, for distrusting the

212 HOME AS FOUND.

legality of the marriage ; but all is no\v clear, and as
a large estate is concerned, we will take care that no
further obscurity shall rest over the affair."

" The part connected with the estate is already
secured," said John Effingham, looking at Eve with
a smile. " An American can always make a will, and
one that contains but a single bequest is soon written.
Mine is executed, and Paul Effingham, my son by my
marriage with Mildred Warrender, and lately known
in the United States' Navy as Paul Powis, is duly de
clared my heir. This will suffice for all legal pur
poses, though \ve shall have large draughts of gossip
to swallow7."

" Cousin Jack !"

« Daughter Eve !"

" Who has given cause for it ?"

" He who commenced one of the most sacred of
his earthly duties, with an unjustifiable deception. The
wisest way to meet it, will be to make our avowals
of the relationship as open as possible."

" I see no necessity, John, of entering into details,"
said Mr. Effingham ; " you were married young, and
lost your wife within a year of your marriage. She
was a Miss Warrender, and the sister of Lady Dun-
luce ; Paul and Ducie are declared cousins, and the
former proves to be your son, of whose existence you
were ignorant. No one wrill presume to question any
of us, and it really strikes me that all rational people
ought to be satisfied with this simple account of the
matter."

"Father!" exclaimed Eve, with her pretty little
hands raised in the attitude of surprise, " in what capi
tal even, in what part of the world, would such a
naked account appease curiosity ? Much less will it
suffice here, where every human being, gentle or sim
ple, learned or ignorant, refined or vulgar, fancies
himself a constitutional judge of all the acts of all his
fellow-creatures ?"

HOME AS FOUND. 213

" We have at least the consolation of knowing that
no revelations will make the matter any worse, or any
better," said Paul, " as the gossips would tell their own
tab, in every case, though its falsehood were as appa
rent as the noon-day sun. A gossip is essentially a liar,
and truth is the last ingredient that is deemed neces
sary to his other qualifications ; indeed, a well authen
ticated fact is a death-blow to a gossip. I hope, my
dear sir, you will say no more than that I am your
son, a circumstance much too precious to me to be
omitted."

John Effingham looked affectionately at the noble
young man, whom he had so long esteemed and ad
mired; and the tears forced themselves to his eyes, as
he felt the supreme happiness that can alone gladden
a parent's heart.

CHAPTER XIV.

"For my part; I care not: I say little; but when the time comes, there
ehall be smiles." NYM.

ALTHOUGH Paul Effingham was right, and Eve
Effingham was. also right, in their opinions of the art
of gossiping, they both forgot one qualifying circum
stance, that, arising from different causes, produces
the same effect, equally in a capital and in a province.
In the first, marvels form a nine days' wonder from
the hurry of events ; in the latter, from the hurry
of talking. When it was announced in Templeton
that Mr. John Effingham had discovered a son in Mr.
Powis, as that son had conjectured, every •thing but
the truth was rumoured and believed, in connection
with the circumstance. Of course it excited a good
deal of a natural and justifiable curiosity and surprise

214 HOME AS FOUND.

in the trained and intelligent, for John Effingham had
passed for a confirmed bachelor ; but they were gene
rally content to suffer a family to have feelings and
incidents that were not to be paraded before a neigh
bourhood. Having some notions themselves of the
delicacy and sanctity of the domestic affections, they
were willing to respect the same sentiments in others.
But these few excepted, the village was in a tumult
of surmises, reports, contradictions, confirmations,
rebutters, and sur-rebutters, for a fortnight. Several
village elegants, whose notions of life were obtained
in the valley in which they were born, and who had
turned up their noses at the quiet, reserved, gentleman
like Paul, because he did not happen to suit their tastes,
were disposed to resent his claim to be his father's son,
as if it were an injustice done to their rights ; such com
mentators on men and things uniformly bringing
every thing down to the standard of serf. Then the
approaching marriages at the Wigwam had to run the
gauntlet, not only of village and county criticisms, but
that of the mighty Emporium itself, as it is the fashion
to call the confused and tasteless collection of flaring
red brick houses, marten-box churches, and colossal
taverns, that stands on the island of Manhattan ; the
discussion of marriages being a topic of never-ending
interest in that well regulated social organization,
after the subjects of dollars, lots, and wines, have been
duly exhausted. Sir George Templemore was trans
formed into the Honourable Lord George Templemore,
and Paul's relationship to Lady Dunluce was convert
ed, as usual, into his being the heir apparent of a Duchy
of that name; Eve's preference for a nobleman, as a
matter of course, to the aristocratical tastes imbibed
during a residence in foreign countries ; Eve, the in
tellectual, feminine, instructed Eve, whose European
associations, while they had taught her to prize the
refinement, grace, retenue, and tone of an advanced
condition of society, had also taught her to despise its

HOME AS FOUND. 215

mere covering and glitter ! But, as there is no pro
tection against falsehood, so is there no reasoning with
ignorance.

A sacred few, at the head of whom were Mr. Stead
fast Dodge and Mrs. Widow-Bewitched Abbott, treated
the matter as one of greater gravity, and as possessing
an engrossing interest for the entire community.

"For my part, Mr. Dodge," said Mrs. Abbott, in
one of their frequent conferences, about a fortnight
after the eclair cissement of the last chapter, " I do not
believe that Paul Powis is Paul Effingham at all. You
say that you knew him by the name of Blunt when he
was a younger man ?'

" Certainly, ma'am. He passed universally by that
name formerly, and it may be considered as at least
extraordinary that he should have had so many aliases.
The truth of the matter is, Mrs. Abbott, if truth could
be come at, which I always contend is very difficult in
the present state of the world "

" You never said a juster thing, Mr. Dodge !" inter
rupted the lady, feelings impetuous as hers seldom
waiting for the completion of a sentence, " I never can
get hold of the truth of any thing now; you may
remember you insinuated that Mr. John Effingham
himself was to be married to Eve, and, lo and behold !
it turns out to be his son !"

" The lady may have changed her mind, Mrs. Ab
bott; she gets the same estate with a younger man."

" She's monstrous disagreeable, and I'm sure it will
be a relief to the whole village when she is married,
let it be to the father, or to the son. Now, do you
know, Mr. Dodge, I have been in a desperate taking
about one thing, and that is to find that, bony fie-dy,
the two old Effinghams are not actually brothers ! I
knew that they called each other cousin Jack and cou
sin Ned, and that Eve affected to call her uncle cousin
Jack, but then she has so many affectations, and the
old people are so foreign, that I looked upon all

216 HOME AS FOUND.

that as mere pretence; I said to myself a neighbour
hood ought to know better about a man's family than
he can know himself, and the neighbourhood all de
clared they were brothers ; and yet it turns out, after
all, that they are only cousins !"

" Yes, I do believe that, for once, the family was
right in that matter, and the public mistaken."

" Well, I should like to know who has a better right
to be mistaken than the public, Mr. Dodge. This is a
free country, and if the people can't sometimes be
wrong, what is the mighty use of their freedom 1 We
are all sinful wretches, at the best, and it is vain to
look for any thing but vice from sinners."

"Nay, my dear Mrs. Abbott, you are too hard on
yourself, for every body allows that you are as exem
plary as you are devoted to your religious duties."

" Oh ! I was not speaking particularly of myself,
sir; I am no egotist in such things, and wish to leave
my own imperfections to the charity of my friends and
neighbours. But, do you think, Mr. Dodge, that a
marriage between Paul Effingham, for so I suppose he
must be called, and Eve Effingham, will be legal?
Can't it be set aside, and if that should be the case,
wouldn't the fortune go to the public ?"

" It ought to be so, my dear ma'am, and I trust the
day is not distant when it will be so. The people are
beginning to understand their rights, and another cen
tury will not pass, before they will enforce them by
the necessary penal statutes. We have got matters
so now, that a man can no longer indulge in the aris
tocratic and selfish desire to make a will, and, take my
word for it, we shall not stop until we bring every thing
to the proper standard."

The reader is not to suppose from his language that
Mr. Dodge was an agrarian, or that he looked forward
to a division of property, at some future day ; for, pos
sessing in his own person already, more than what
could possibly fall to an individual share, he had not

HOME AS FOUND. 217

the smallest desire to lessen its amount by a general di
vision. In point of fact he did not know his own
meaning, except as he felt envy of all above him, in
which, in truth, was to be found the whole secret of
his principles, his impulses, and his doctrines. Any
thing that would pull down those whom education,
habits, fortune, or tastes, had placed in positions more
conspicuous than his own, was, in his eyes, reasonable
and just — as any thing that would serve him, in person,
the same ill turn, would have been tyranny and oppres-
ssion. The institutions of America, like every thing
human, have their bad as well as their good side ; and
while we firmly believe in the relative superiority of
the latter, as compared with other systems, we should
fail of accomplishing the end set before us in this
work, did we not exhibit, in strong colours, one of the
most prominent consequences that has attended the
entire destruction of factitious personal distinctions in
the country, which has certainly aided in bringing out
in bolder relief than common, the prevalent disposition
in man to covet that which is the possession of another,
and to decry merits that are unattainable.

" Well, I rejoice to hear this," returned Mrs. Abbott,
whose principles were of the same loose school as
those of her companion, " for I think no one should
have rights but those who have experienced religion,
if you would keep vital religion in a country. There
goes that old sea-lion, Truck, and his fishing associate,
the commodore, with their lines and poles, as usual,
Mr. Dodge ; I beg you will call to them, for I long to
hear what the first can have to say about his beloved
Effinghams, now ?"

Mr. Dodge complied, and the navigator of the ocean
and the navigator of the lake, were soon seated in Mrs.
Abbott's little parlour, which might be styled the focus
of gossip, near those who were so lately its sole oc
cupants.

" This is wonderful news, gentlemen," commenced

VOL. II. 19

218 HOME AS fOUND.

Mrs. Abbott, as soon as the bustle of the entrance
had subsided. " Mr. Powis is Mr. Effingham, and it
seems that Miss Effingham is to become Mrs. Effing-
ham. Miracles will never cease, and I look upon this
as one of the most surprising of my time."

"Just so, ma'am," said the commodore, winking his
eye, and giving the usual flourish with a hand ; " your
time has not been that of a day neither, and Mr. Powis
has reason to rejoice that he is the hero of such a his
tory. For my part, I could not have been more as
tonished, were I to bring up the sogdollager with a
trout-hook, having a cheese paring for the bait."

" I understand," continued the lady, " that there are
doubts after all, whether this miracle be really a true
miracle. It is hinted that Mr. Powis is neither Mr.
Effingham nor Mr. Powis, but that he is actually a
Mr. Blunt. Do you happen to know any thing of the
matter, Captain Truck?"

"I have been introduced to him, ma'am, by all
three names, and I consider him as an acquaintance
in each character. I can assure you, moreover, that
he is A, No. 1, on whichever tack you take him ; a man
who carries a weather helm in the midst of his ene
mies."

" Well, I do not consider it a very great recommen
dation for one to have enemies, at all. Now, I dare
say, Mr. Dodge, you have not an enemy on earth ?"

" I should be sorry to think that I had, Mrs. Abbott.
I am every man's friend, particularly the poor man's
friend, and I should suppose that every man ought to
be my friend. I hold the whole human family to be
brethren, and that they ought to live together as
such."

" Very true, sir ; quite true — we are all sinners, and
ought to look favourably on each other's failings. Jt
is no business of mine — I say it is no business of ours.
Mr. Dodge, who Miss Eve Effingham marries ; but
were she my daughter, I do think I should not like her

HOME AS FOUND. 219

to have three family names, and to keep her own in
the bargain !"

" The Effinghams hold their heads very much up,
though it is not easy to see why ; but so they do, and
the more names the better, perhaps, for such people,"
returned the editor. " For my part, I treat them with
condescension, just as I do every body else ; for it is a
rule with me, Captain Truck, to make use of the same
deportment to a king on his throne, as I would to a
beggar in the street."

" Merely to show that you do not feel yourself to be
above your betters. We have many such philosophers
in this country."

" Just so," said the commodore.

" I wish I knew," resumed Mrs. Abbott ; for there
existed in her head, as well as in that of Mr. Dodge,
such a total confusion oh the subject of deportment,
that neither saw nor felt the cool sarcasm of the old
sailor ; " I wish I knew, now, whether Eve Effingham
has really been regenerated ! What is your opinion,
commodore ?"

" Re-what, ma'am," said the commodore, who was
not conscious of ever having heard the word before ;
for, in his Sabbaths on the water, where he often
worshipped God devoutly in his heart, the language
of the professedly pious was never heard ; " I can only
say she is as pretty a skiff as floats, but I can tell you
nothing about resuscitation — indeed, I never heard of
her having been drowned."

" Ah, Mrs. Abbott, the very best friends of the
Effinghams will not maintain that they are pious. I
do not wish to be invidious, or to say urmeighbourly
things ; but were I upon oath, I could testify to a great
many things, which would unqualifiedly show, that
none of them have ever experienced."

" Now, Mr. Dodge, you know how much I dislike
scandal," the widow-bewitched cried affectedly, " ana
I cannot tolerate such a sweeping charge. I insist on

220 HOME AS FOUND.

the proofs of what you say, in which, no doubt, these
gentlemen will join me."

By proofs, Mrs. Abbott meant allegations.

" Well, ma'am, since you insist on my proving what
I have said, you shall not be disappointed. In the first
place, then, they read their family prayers out of a
book."

"Ay, ay," put in the captain ; " but that merely snows
they have some education ; it is done every where."

" Your pardon, sir ; no people but the Catholics and
the church people commit this impiety. The idea of
reading to the Deity, Mrs. Abbott, is particularly
shocking to a pious soul."

" As if the Lord stood in need of letters ! That
is very bad, I allow ; for at family prayers, a form
becomes mockery."

" Yes, ma'am ; but what do you think of cards ?"

" Cards !" exclaimed Mrs. Abbott, holding up her
pious hands, in holy horror.

" Even so ; foul paste-board, marked with kings and
queens," said the captain. " Why this is w^orse than a
common sin, being unqualifiedly anti-republican."

" I confess I did not expect this ! I had heard that
Eve Effingharn was guilty of indiscretions, but I did
not think she was so lost to virtue, as to touch a card.
Oh ! Eve Effingham ; Eve Effingham, for what is your
poor diseased soul destined !"

" She dances, too, I suppose you know that," con
tinued Mr. Dodge, who finding his popularity a little
on the wane, had joined the meeting himself, a few
weeks before, and who did not fail to manifest the zeai
of a new convert.

" Dances !" repeated Mrs. Abbott, in holy horror.

" Real fi diddle de di !" echoed Captain Truck.

"Just so," put in the commodore; "I have seen it
with my own eyes. But, Mrs. Abbott, I feel bound to
tell you that your own daughter "

" Biansy-Alzumy-Anne !" exclaimed the mother in
alarm.

HOME AS FOUND. 221

" Just so ; my-aunty-all-suit-me-arme, if that is her
name. Do you know, ma'am, that I have seen your
own blessed daughter, my-aunty-Anne, do a worse
thing, even, than dancing !"

" Commodore, you are awful ! What could a child
of mine do that is worse than dancing ?"

"Why, ma'am, if you will hear all, it is my duty to
tell you. I saw aunty-Anne (the commodore was
really ignorant of the girl's name) jump a skipping-
rope, yesterday morning, between the hours of seven
and eight. As I hope ever to see the sogdollager,
again, ma'am, I did !"

" And do you call this as bad as dancing?'

" Much worse, ma'am, to my notion. It is jumping
about without music, and without any grace, either,
particularly as it was performed by my-aunty-Anne."

" You are given to light jokes. Jumping the skip
ping-rope is not forbidden in the bible."

. " Just so ; nor is dancing, if I know any thing about
it; nor, for that matter, cards."

" But waste of time is ; a sinful waste of time ; and
evil passions, and all unrighteousness."

" Just so. My-aunty-Anne wTas going to the pump
for water — I dare say you sent her — and she was
misspending her time ; and as for evil passions, she did
not enjoy the hop, until she and your neighbour's
daughter had pulled each other's hair for the rope, as
if they had been two she-dragons. Take my word for
it, ma'ain, it wanted for nothing to make it sin of the
purest water, but a cracked fiddle."

While the commodore was holding Mrs. Abbott at
bay, in this manner, Captain Truck, who had given him
a wink to that effect, was employed in playing off a
practical joke at the expense of the widow. It was
one of the standing amusements of these worthies, who
had gotten to be sworn friends and constant associates,
after they had caught as many fish as they wished, to
retire to the favourite spring, light, the one his cigar,
19*

222 HOME AS FOUND.

the other his pipe, mix their grog, and then relieve
their er.nui, when tired of discussing men and things,
by playing cards on a particular stump. Now, it
happens that the captain had the identical pack which
had been used on all such occasions in his pocket, as
was evident in the fact that the cards were nearly as
distinctly marked on their backs, as on their faces.
These cards he showed secretly to his companion, and
when the attention of Mrs. Abbott was altogether en
gaged in expecting the terrible announcement of her
daughter's errors, the captain slipped them, kings,
queens and knaves, high, low, jack and the game, with
out regard to rank, into the lady's work-basket. As soon
as this feat was successfully performed, a sign was giv
en to the commodore that the conspiracy was effected,
and that disputant in theology gradually began to give
ground, while he continued to maintain that jumping
the rope was a sin, though it might be one of a
nominal class. There is little doubt, had he pos
sessed a smattering of phrases, a greater command of
biblical learning, and more zeal, that the fisherman
might have established a new shade of the Christian
faith ; for, while mankind still persevere in disregarding
the plainest mandates of God, as respects humility, the
charities, and obedience, nothing seems to afford them
more delight than to add to the catalogue of the
offences against his divine supremacy. It was perhaps
lucky for the commodore, who was capital at casting
a pickerel line, but who usually settled his polemics
with the fist, when hard pushed, that Captain Truck
found leisure to come to the rescue.

" I 'm amazed, ma'am," said the honest packet-mas
ter, " that a woman of your sanctity should deny that
jumping the rope is a sin, for I hold that point to have
been settled by all our people, these fifty years. You
will admit that the rope cannot be well-jumped with
out levity."

" Levity, Captain Truck ! I hope you do not insinu
ate that a daughter of mine discovers levity?"

HOME AS FOUND. 223

"Certainly, ma'am; she is called the best rope-
jumper in the village, I hear ; and levity, or lightness
of carnage, is the great requisite for skill in the art.
Then there are 'vain repetitions' in doing the same
thing over and over so often, and * vain repetitions'
are forbidden even in our prayers. I can call both
father and mother to testify to that fact."

" Well, this is news to me ! I must speak to the min
ister about it,"

" Of the two, the skipping-rope is rather more sinful
than dancing, for the music makes the latter easy;
whereas, one has to force the spirit to enter into the
other. Commodore, our hour has come,*and we must
make sail. May I ask the favour, Mrs. Abbott, of a
bit of thread to fasten this hook afresh?'

The widow-bewitched turned to her basket, ana
raising a piece of calico, to look for the thread " high,
low, jack and the game," stared her" in the face.
When she bent her eyes towards her guests, she per
ceived all three gazing at the cards, with as much ap
parent surprise and curiosity, as if two of them knew
nothing of their history.

" Awful !" exclaimed Mrs. Abbott, shaking both
hands, — " awful — awful — awful ! The powers of
darkness have been at work here !"

" They seem to have been pretty much occupied,
too," observed the captain, " for a better thumbed pack
I never yet found in the forecastle of a ship."

" Awful — awful — awful ! — This is equal to the forty
days in the wilderness,' Mr. Dodge."

" It is a trying cross, ma'am."

" To my notion, now," said the captain, " those cards
are not worse than the skipping-rope, though I allow
that they might have been cleaner."

But Mrs. Abbott was not disposed to view the mat
ter so lightly. She saw the hand of the devil in the
affair, and fancied it was a new trial offered to her
widowed condition.

224 HOME AS FOUND.

" Are these actually cards !" she cried, like one who
distrusted the evidence of her senses.

" Just so, ma'am," kindly answered the commodore;
" This is the ace of spades, a famous fellow to hold
when you have the lead ; and this is the Jack, which
counts one, you kno\v, when spades are trumps. I
never saw a more thorough-working pack in my
life."

" Or a more thoroughly worked pack," added the
captain, in a condoling manner. " Well, we are not
all perfect, and I hope Mrs. Abbott will cheer up and
look at this matter in a gayer point of view. For
myself I hold that a skipping-rope is worse than the
Jack of spades, Sundays or week days. Commodore,
we shall see no pickerel to-day, unless wre tear our
selves from this good company."

Here the two wags took their leave, and retreated
to the skiff; the captain, who foresaw an occasion to
use them, considerately offering to relieve Mrs. Abbott
from the presence of the odious cards, intimating that
he would conscientiously see them fairly sunk in the
deepest part of the lake.

When the two worthies were at a reasonable distance
from the shore, the commodore suddenly ceased row
ing, made a flourish with his hand, and incontinently be
gan to laugh, as if his mirth had suddenly broken through
all restraint. Captain Truck, who had been lighting a
cigar, commenced smoking, and, seldom indulging in
boisterous merriment, he responded with his eyes,
shaking his head from time to time, with great satis
faction, as thoughts more ludicrous than common came
over his imagination.

" Harkee, commodore," he said, blowing the smoke
upward, and watching it with his eye until it floated
away in a little cloud, " neither of us is a chicken.
You have studied life on the fresh water, and I have
studied life on the salt. I do not say which produces

HOME AS FOUND. 225

the best scholars, but I know that both make better
Christians than the jack-screw system."

"Just so. I tell them in the village that little is
gained in the end by following the blind ; that is my
doctrine, sir."

" And a very good doctrine it would prove, I make
no doubt, were you to enter into it a little more
fully »

" We'll, sir, I can explain "

" Not another syllable is necessary. I know what
you mean as well as if I said it myself, and, moreover,
short sermons are always the best. You mean that a
pilot ought to know where he is steering, which is per
fectly sound doctrine. My own experience tells me,
that if you press a sturgeon's nose with your foot, it
will spring up as soon as it is loosened. Now the
jack-screw will heave a great strain, no doubt ; but the
moment it is let up, down comes all that rests on it,
again. This Mr. Dodge, I suppose you know, has been
a passenger with me once or twice ?'

" I have heard as much — they say he was tigerish
in the fight with the niggers — quite an out-and-outer."

" Ay, I hear he tells some such story himself; but
harkee, commodore, I wish to do justice to all men,
and I find there is very little of it inland, hereaway.
The hero of that day is about to marry your beautiful
Miss Effingham ; other men did their duty too, as, for
instance, was the case with Mr. John Effingham ; but
Paul Bluht-Powis-Effingham finished the job. As for
Mr. Steadfast Dodge, sir, I say nothing, unless it be to
add that he was nowhere near me in that transaction ;
and if any man felt like an alligator in Lent, on that
occasion, it was your humble servant."

" Which means that he was not nigh the enemy, I'll
swear before a magistrate."

"And no fear of perjury. Any one who saw Mr.
John Effingham and Mr. Powis on that day, might
have sworn that they were father and son , and any

226 HOME AS FOUND.

one who did not see Mr. Dodge might have said at
once, that he did not belong to their family. That is
all, sir; I never disparage a passenger, and, therefore,
shall say no more than merely to add, that Mr. Dodge
is no warrior."

" They say he has experienced religion, lately, as
they call it."'

" It is high time, sir, for he had experienced sin quite
long enough, according to my notion. I hear 'that the
man goes up and down the country disparaging those
whose shoe-ties he is unworthy to unloose, and that he
has published some letters in his journal, that are as
false as his heart ; but let him beware, lest the world
should see, some rainy day, an extract from a certain
log-book belonging to a ship called the Montauk. I
am rejoiced at this marriage after all, commodore, or
marriages rather, for I understand that Mr. Paul
Effingham and Sir George Templemore intend to make
a double bowline of it to-morrow morning. All is
arranged, and as soon as my eyes have witnessed that
blessed sight, I shall trip for New- York again."

" It is clearly made out then, that the young gentle
man is Mr. John Effingham's son ?"

" As clear as the north-star in a bright night. The
fellow who spoke to me at the Fun of Fire has put us
in a way to remove the last doubt, if there were any
doubt. Mr. Effingham himself, who is so cool-headed
and cautious, says there is now sufficient proof to
make it good in any court in America. That point
may be set down as settled, and, for my part, I rejoice
it is so, since Mr. John Effingham has so long passed
for an old bachelor, that it is a credit to the corps to
find one of them the father of so noble a son."

Here the commodore dropped his anchor, and the
two friends began to fish. For an hour neither talked
much, but having obtained the necessary stock of
perch, they landed at the favourite spring, and prepared
a fry. While seated on the grass, alternating be-

HOME AS FOUND. 227

tween the potations of punch, and the mastication of
fish, these worthies again renewed the dialogue in
their usual discursive, philosophical, and sentimental
manner.

" We arc citizens of a surprisingly great country,
commodore," commenced Mr. Truck, after one of his
heaviest draughts; "every body says it, from Maine
to Florida, and what every body says must be true."

" Just so, sir. I sometimes wonder how so great a
country ever came to produce so little a man as mv-
self."

" A good cow may have a bad calf, and that ex
plains the matter. Have you many as virtuous and
pious women in this part of the world, as Mrs. Abbott?'

" The hills and valleys are filled with them. You
mean persons who have got so much religion that they
have no room for any thing else ?"

" I shall mourn to my dying day, that you were not
brought up to the sea ! If you discover so much of the
right material on fresh-water, what would you have
been on salt? The people who suck in nutriment from
a brain and a conscience like those of Mr. Dodge, too,
commodore, must get, in time, to be surprisingly clear
sighted."

"Just so; his readers soon overreach themselves.
But it's of no great consequence, sir; the people of this
part of the world keep nothing long enough to do
much good, or much harm."

" Fond of change, ha ?"

" Like unlucky fishermen, always ready to shift the
ground. I don't believe, sir, that in all this region you
can find a dozen graves of sons, that lie near their
fathers. Every body seems to have a mortal aversion
to stability."

" It is hard to love such a country, commodore !"

" Sir, I never try to love it. God has given me a
pretty sheet of water, that suits my fancy and wants,
i\ beautiful sky, fine green mountains, and I am satis-

22S HOME AS FOUND.

fied. One may love God, in such a temple, though he
love nothing else."

" Well, I suppose if you love nothing, nothing loves
you, and no injustice is done."

" Just so, sir. Self has got to be the idol, though in
the general scramble a man is sometimes puzzled to
know whether he is himself, or one of the neighbours."

" I wish I knew your political sentiments, commo
dore ; you have been communicative on all subjects but
that, and I have taken up the notion that you are a
true philosopher."

" I hold myself to be but a babe in swaddling-clothes
compared to yourself, sir ; but such as my poor opin
ions are, you are welcome to them. In the first place,
then, sir, I have lived long enough on this water to
know that every man is a lover of liberty in his own
person, and that he has a secret distaste for it in the
persons of other people. Then, sir, I have got to un
derstand that patriotism means bread and cheese, and
that opposition is every man for himself."

" If the truth were known, I believe, commodore, you
have buoyed out the channel !"

"Just so. After being pulled, about by the salt of
the land, and using my freeman's privileges at their
command, until I got tired of so much liberty, sir, I
have resigned, and retired to private life, doing most
of my own thinking out here on the Otsego-Water, like
a poor slave as I am."

"You ought to be chosen the next President!"

" I owe my present emancipation, sir, to the sogdol-
lager. I first began to reason about such a man as
this Mr. Dodge, who has thrust himself and his igno
rance together into the village, lately, as an expounder
of truth, and a ray of light to the blind. Well, sir,
I said to myself, if this man be the man I know him
to be as a man, can he be any thing better as an
editor?"

HOME AS FOUND. 229

" That was a home question put to yourself, com
modore ; how did you answer it ?'

" The answer was satisfactory, sir, to myself, what
ever it might be to other people. I stopped his paper,
and set up for myself. Just about that time the sogdol-
lager nibbled, and instead of trying to be a great man,
over the shoulders of the patriots and sages of tho
land, I endeavoured to immortalize myself by hook ing
him. I go to the elections now, for that I feel to be a
duty, but instead of allowing a man like this Mr. Dodge
to tell me how to vote, I vote for the man in public
that I would trust in private."

" Excellent ! I honour you more and more every
minute I pass in your society. We will now drink to
the future happiness of those who will become brides
and bridegrooms to-morrow. If all men were as phi
losophical and as learned as you, commodore, the hu
man race would be in a fairer way than they are to
day."

•' Just so ; I drink to them with all my heart. Is it
not surprising, sir, that people like Mrs. Abbott and
Mr. Dodge should have it in their power to injure such
as those whose happiness we have just had the honour
of commemorating in advance?"

" Why, commodore, a fly may bite an elephant, if
he can find a weak spot in his hide. I do not altogether
understand the history of the marriage of John Effing-
ham, myself; but we see the issue of it has been a fine
son. Now I hold that when a man fairly marries, he
is bound to own it, the same as any other crime ; for
he owes it to those who have not been as guilty as
himself, to show the world that he no longer belongs
to them."

"Just so; but we have flies in this part of the woru
that will bite through the toughest hide."

" That comes from there being no quarter-deck in
your social ship, commodore. Now aboard of a well-
regulated packet, all the thinking is done aft ; they who

VOL. II. 20

230 HOME AS FOUND.

are desirous of knowing \vliereabouts the vessel is,
being compelled to wait till the observations are taken,
or to sit dowrn in their ignorance. The whole difficulty
comes from the fact that sensible people live so far
apart in this quarter of the world, that fools have more
room than should fall to their share. You understand
me, commodore ?"

"Just so," said the commodore, laughing, and wink
ing. " Well, it is fortunate that there are some people
who are not quite as weak-minded as some other peo
ple. I take it, Captain Truck, that you will be present
at the wedding ?"

The captain now winked in his turn, looked around
him to make sure no one was listening, and laying a
finger on his nose, he answered, in a much lower key
than v/as usual for him —

" You can keep a secret, I know, commodore. Now
what I have to say is not to be told to Mrs. Abbott, in
order that it may be repeated and multiplied, but is to
be kept as snug as your bait, in the bait-box."

'* You know your man, sir."

"Well then, about ten minutes before the clock
strikes nine, to-morrow morning, do you slip into the
gallery of New St. Paul's, and you shall see beauty
and modesty, when * unadorned, adorned the most.'
You comprehend ?"

" Just so," and the hand was flourished even more
than usual.

" It does not become us bachelors to be too lenient
to matrimony, but I should be an unhappy man, were
I riot to witness the marriage of Paul Powis to Eve
Effingham."

Here both the worthies, " freshened the nip," as Cap
tain Truck called it, and then the conversation soon
got to I e too philosophical and contemplative for this
unpretending record of events and ideas.

HOME AS FOUtfD. 231

CHAPTER XV.

'•Then plainly know, my heart's dear love is set
On the fair daughter of rich Capulet;
As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine ;
And all combined, save what thou must confine
By holy marriage."

ROMEO AND JULIET.

THE morning chosen for the nuptials of Eve and
Grace arrived, and all the inmates of the Wigwam
were early afoot, though the utmost care had been
taken to prevent the intelligence of the approaching
ceremony from getting into the village. They little
Knew, however, how closely they were watched; the
mean artifices that were resorted to by some who
called themselves their neighbours,, to tamper with ser
vants, to obtain food for conjecture, and to justify to
themselves their exaggerations, falsehoods, and frauds.
The news did leak out, as will presently be seen, and
through a channel that may cause the reader, who is
unacquainted with some of the peculiarities of Ameri
can life, a little surprise.

We have frequently alluded to Annette, the femme
de chambre that had followed Eve from Europe, al
though we have had no occasion to dwell on her cha
racter, \vhich was that of a woman of her class, as
they are well known to exist in France. Annette was
young, had bright, sparkling black eyes, was well
made, and had the usual tournure and manner of a
Parisian grisette. As it is the besetting weakness of
all provincial habits to mistake graces for grace,
flourishes for elegance, and exaggeration for merit,
Annette soon acquired a reputation in her circle, as
a woman of more, than usual claims to distinction.
Her attire was in the height of the fashion, being of

232 HOME AS FOUND.

Eve's cast-off clothes, and of the best materials, and at
tire is also a point that is not without its influence on
those who are unaccustomed to the world.

As the double ceremony was to take place before
breakfast, Annette was early employed about the per
son of her young mistress, adorning it in the bridal
robes. While she worked at her usual employment, the
attendant appeared unusually agitated, and several
times pins wrere badly pointed, and new arrangements
had to supersede or to supply the deficiencies of her mis
takes. Eve was always a model of patience, and she
bore with these little oversights with a quiet that would
have given Paul an additional pledge of her admirable
self-command, as \vell as of a sweetness of temper that,
in truth, raised her almost above the commoner feel
ings of mortality.

" Vous etes un pen agitce, ce matin, ma bonne An
nette,'- she merely observed, when her maid had com
mitted a blunder more material than common.

" fespere que Mademoiselle a etc contente de moi,
jusqiC a present" returned Annette, vexed with her
own awkwardness, and speaking in the manner in
which it is usual to announce an intention to quit a
service.

" Certainly, Annette, you have conducted yourself
well, and are very expert in your mttier. But why
do you ask this question, just at this moment ?"

" Parceque — because — with mademoiselle's permis
sion, I intended to ask for my conge"

" Conge! Do you think of quitting me, Annette?"

" It would make me happier than any thing else to
die in the service of mademoiselle, but \ve are all sub
ject to our destiny" — the conversation was in French
— " and mine compels me to cease my services as a
femme de chambre"

" This is a sudden, and for one in a strange country,
an extraordinary resolution. May I ask, Annette, what
you propose to do 1"

HOME AS FOUND. 233

Here, the woman gave herself certain airs, endea
voured to blush, did look at the carpet with a studied
modesty that might have deceived one who did not
know the genus, and announced her intention to get
married, too, at the end of the present month.

" Married !" repeated Eve — " surely not to old
Pierre, Annette '/"

" Pierre, Mademoiselle ! I shall not condescend to
look at Pierre. Je vais me marier avec un avocat."

" Un avocat /"

" Old Mademoiselle. I will marry myself with
Monsieur Aristabule Bragg, if Mademoiselle shall per
mit."

Eve was perfectly mute with astonishment, not
withstanding the proofs she had often seen of the wide
range that the ambition of an American of a certain
class allows itself. Of course, she remembered the
conversation on the Point, and it would not have been
in nature, had not a mistress who had been so lately
wooed, felt some surprise at finding her discarded
suitor so soon seeking consolation in the smiles of her
own maid. Still her surprise was less than that which
the reader will probably experience at this announce
ment ; for, as has just been said, she had seen too much
of the active and pliant enterprise of the lover, to feel
much wonder at any of his moral tours de force.
Even Eve, however, was not perfectly acquainted with
the views and policy that had led Aristabulus to seek
this consummation to his matrimonial schemes, which
must be explained explicitly, in order that they may
be properly understood.

Mr. Bragg had no notion of any distinctions in the
world, beyond those which came from money, and
political success. For the first he had a practical
deference that was as profound as his wishes for its
enjoyments ; and for the last he felt precisely the sort
of reverence, that one educated under a feudal system,
would feel for a feudal lord. The first, aftei several
20*

234 HOME AS FOUND.

unsuccessful efforts, he had found unattainable by
means of matrimony, and he turned his thoughts
towards Annette, whom he had for some months held
in reserve, in the event of his failing with Eve and
Grace, for on both these heiresses had he entertained
designs, as a pis alter. Annette was a dress-maker
of approved taste, her person was sufficiently attrac
tive, her broken English gave piquancy to thoughts of
no great depth, she was of a suitable age, and he had
made her proposals and been accepted, as soon as it
was ascertained that Eve and Grace were irretrieva
bly lost to him. Of course, the Parisienne did not hesi
tate an instant about becoming the wife of un avocat ;
for, agreeably to her habits, rratrimony was a legiti
mate means of bettering her condition in life. The
plan was soon arranged. They were to be married as
soon as Annette's month's not'ce had expired, ana then
they were to emigrate to the far west, where Mr.
Bragg proposed to practise T.aw, or keep school, or to
go to Congress, or to turn trader, or to saw lumber,
or, in short, to turn his hano to any thing that offered ;
while Annette was to help along with the menage, by
making dresses, and teaching French ; the latter occu
pation promising to be somewhat peripatetic, the popu
lation being scattered, and few of the dwellers in the
interior deeming it necessary to take more than a
quarter's instruction in any of the higher branches of
education; the object being to study, as it is called,
and not to knou\ Aristabulus, who was filled with go-
aheadism, would have shortened the delay, but this
Annette positively resisted; her esprit de corps as a
servant, and all her notions of justice, repudiating the
notion that the connexion which had existed so long
between Eve and herself, was to be cut off at a mo
ment's warning. So diametrically were the ideas of
the fiances opposed to each other, on this point, that
at one time it threatened a rupture, Mr. Bragg assert
ing the natural independence of man to a degree that

HOME AS FOUND. 235

xvould have rendered him independent of all obligations
that were not effectually enacted by the law, and An
nette maintaining the dignity of a European femine de
chambre, whose sense of propriety demanded that she
should not quit her place without giving a month's
warning. The affair was happily decided by Arista-
bulus's receiving a commission to tend a store, in the
absence of its owner; Mr. Effingham, on a hint from
his daughter, having profited by the annual expiration
of the engagement, to bring their connexion to an end.

This termination to the passion of Mr. Bragg would
have afforded Eve a good deal of amusement at any
other moment ; but a bride cannot be expected to give
too much of her attention to the felicity and prospects
of those who have no natural or acquired claims to
her affection. The cousins met, attired for the cere
mony, in Mr. Effmgham's room, where he soon
came in person, to lead them to the drawing-room.
It is seldom that two more lovely young women
are brought together on similar occasions. As Mr.
Effingham stood between them, holding, a hand of
each, his moistened eyes turned from one to the other
in honest pride, and in an admiration that even his
tenderness could not restrain.' The toilettes were as
simple as the marriage ceremony will permit ; for it
was intended that there should be no unnecessary
parade; and, perhaps, the delicate beauty of each of
the brides was rendered the more attractive by this
simplicity, as it has often been justly remarked, that
the fair of this country are more winning in dress of a
less conventional character, than when in the elaborate
and regulated attire of ceremonies. As might have
been expected, there was most of soul and feeling in
Eve's countenance, though Grace wore an air of
charming modesty and nature. Both were unaffected,
simple and graceful, and we may add that both trem
bled as Mr. Effingham took their hands.

" This is a pleasing and yet a painful hour," said

236 HOME AS FOUND.

that kind and excellent man ; " one in which I gain a
son, and lose a daughter."

" And /, dearest uncle," exclaimed Grace, whose
feelings trembled on her eye-lids, like the dew ready
to drop from the leaf, "have /no connexion with your
feelings ?"

" You are the daughter that I lose, my child, for
Eve wrill still remain with me. But Templemore has
promised to be grateful, and I will trust his word."

Mr. Effingham then embraced with fervour both
the charming young women, \vho stood apparelled
for the most important event of their lives, lovely in
their youth, beauty, innocence, and modesty ; and tak
ing an arm of each, he led them below. John Effing-
ham, the two bridegrooms, Captain Ducie, Mr. and
Mrs. Bloomfield, Mrs. Hawker, Captain Truck, Made
moiselle Viefville, Annette, and Ann Sidley, were all
assembled in the drawing-room, ready to receive them;
and as soon as shawls were thrown around Eve and
Grace, in order to conceal the wedding dresses, the
whole party proceeded to the church.

The distance between the Wigwam and New St.
Paul's was very trifling, the solemn pines of the church
yard blending, from many points, with the gayer trees
in the grounds of the former ; and as the buildings in
this part of the village were few7, the whole of the bri
dal train entered the tower, unobserved by the eyes
of the curious. The clergyman was waiting in the
chancel, and as each of the young men led the object
of his choice immediately to the altar, the double
ceremony began without delay. At this instant
Mr. Aristabulus Dodge and Mrs. Abbot advanced
from the rear of the gallery, and coolly took their
seats in its front. Neither belonged to this particular
church, though, having discovered that the marriages
were to take place that morning by means of Annette,
they had no scruples on the score of delicacy about
thrusting themselves forward on the occasion; for, to

HOME AS POUND. 237

the latest moment, that publicity-principle which ap
peared to be interwoven with their very natures, in
duced them to think that nothing was so sacred as to
be placed beyond the reach of curiosity. They en
tered the church, because the church they held to be
a public place, precisely on the principle that others
of their class conceive if a gate be blown open by ac
cident, it removes all the moral defences against tres
passers, as it removes the physical.

The solemn language of the prayers and vows pro
ceeded none the less for the presence of these unwel
come intruders ; for, at that grave moment, all other
thoughts were hushed in those that more properly be
longed to the scene. When the clergyman made the
usual appeal to know if any man could give a reason
why those who stood before him should not be united
in holy wedlock, Mrs. Abbott nudged Mr. Dodge, and,
in the fulness of her discontent, eagerly inquired in a
whisper, if it were not possible to raise some valid
objection. Could she have had her pious wish, the
simple, unpretending, meek, and church-going Eve,
should never be married. But the editor was not a
man to act openly in any thing, his particular province
lying in insinuations and innuendoes. As a hint would
not now be available, he determined to postpone his
revenge to a future day. We say revenge, for Stead
fast was of the class that consider any happiness, or
advantage, in which they are not ample participators,
wrongs done to themselves.

That is a wise regulation of the church, which
makes the marriage ceremony brief, for the intensity
of the feelings it often creates would frequently be
come too powerful to be suppressed, were it unneces
sarily prolonged. Mr. Effingham gave away both the
brides, the one in the quality of parent, the other in
that of guardian, and neither of the bridegrooms got
the ring on the wrong finger. This is all we have to
say of the immediate scene at the altar. As soon as

238 HOME AS FOUND.

the Benediction was pronounced, and the brides were
released from the first embraces of their husbands,
Mr. Effingham, without even kissing Eve, threw the
shawls over their shoulders, and, taking an arm of
each, he led them rapidly from the church, for
he felt reluctant to suffer the holy feelings that were
uppermost in his heart to be the spectacle of rude and
obtrusive observers. At the door, he relinquished Eve
to Paul, and Grace to Sir George, with a silent pres
sure of the hand of each, and signed for them to pro
ceed towards the Wigwam. He was obeyed, and in
less than half an hour from the time they had left the
drawing-room, the whole party was again assembled
in it.

What a change had been produced in the situation
of so many, in that brief interval !

"Father!" Eve whispered, while Mr. Effingham
folded her to his heart, the unbidden tears falling from
both their eyes — " I am still thine !"

" It would break my heart to think otherwise, darling.
No, no — I have not lost a daughter, but have gained
a son."

" And what place am I to occupy in this scene of
fondness?" inquired John Effingham, who had consi
derately paid his compliments to Grace first, that she
might not feel forgotten at such a moment, and who
had so managed that she was now receiving the cori-

fratulations of the rest of the party ; " am I to lose
oth son and daughter?"

Eve, smiling sweetly through her tears, raised her
self from her own father's arms, and was received in
those of her husband's parent. After he had fondly
kissed her forehead several times, without withdraw
ing from his bosom, she parted the rich hair on his
forehead, passing her hand down his face, like an in-
fant, and said softly —
" Cousin Jack !" .
4 1 believe this must be my rank and estimation still !

HOME AS FOUND. 239

Paul shall make no difference in our feeling; we will
love each other as we have ever done."

" Paul can be nothing new between you and me.
You have always been a second father in my eyes,
and in my heart, too, dear — dear cousin Jack."

John Effingham pressed the beautiful, ardent, blush
ing girl to his bosom again ; and as he did so, both
felt, notwithstanding their language, that a new and
dearer tie than ever bound them together. Eve now
received the compliments of the rest of the party,
when the two brides retired to change the dresses in
which they had appeared at the altar, for their more
ordinary attire.

In her own dressing-room, Eve found Ann Sidley,
waiting with impatience to pour out her feelings, the
honest and affectionate creature being much too sensi
tive to open the floodgates of her emotions in the pre
sence of third parties.

"Ma'am — Miss Eve — Mrs. Effingham!" she ex
claimed as soon as her young mistress entered, afraid
of saying too much, now that her nursling had become
a married woman.

" My kind and good Nanny !" said Eve, taking her
old nurse in her arms, their tears mingling in silence
for near a minute. " You have seen your child enter
on the last of her great earthly engagements, Nanny,
and I know you pray that they may prove happy."

"I do — I do — I do — ma'am — madam — Miss Eve
— what am I to call you in future, ma'am ?"

" Call me Miss Eve, as you have done since rny
childhood, dearest Nanny."

Nanny received this permission with delight, *nd
twenty times that morning she availed herself of the
permission; and she continued to use the term until,
*wo years later, she danced a miniature Eve on her
Knee3 as she had done its mother before her, when ma
tronly rank began silently to assert its rights, and our
present bride became Mrs. Effingham.

240 HOME AS FOUND.

" I shall not quit you, ma'am, now that you are mar
riedt" Ann Sidley timidly asked; for, although she
could scarcely think such an event within the bounds
of probability, and Eve had already more than once
assured her of the contrary with her own tongue, still
did she love to have assurance made doubly sure. " I
hope nothing will ever happen to make me quit you,
ma'am 1"

" Nothing of that sort, with my consent, ever shall
happen, my excellent Nanny. And now that Annette
is about to get married, I shall have more than the
usual necessity for your services."

" And Mamerzelle, ma'am 1" inquired Nanny, with
sparkling eyes ; " I suppose she, too, will return to her
own country, now you know every thing, and have no
farther occasion for her ?"

" Mademoiselle Viefville will return to France in the
autumn, but it will be with us all ; for my dear father,
cousin Jack, my husband — " Eve blushed as she pro
nounced the novel word — " and myself, not forgetting
you my old nurse, will all sail for England, with Sir
George and Lady Templemore, on our way to Italy,
the first week in October."

" I care not, ma'am, so that I go with you. I would
rather we did not live in a country where I cannot un
derstand all that the people say to you, but wherever
you are will be my earthly paradise."

Eve kissed the true-hearted woman, and, Annette
entering, she changed her dress.

The two brides met at the head of the great stairs,
on their way back to the drawing-room. Eve was a
little in advance, but, with a half-concealed smile, she
gave way to Grace, curtsying gravely, and saying —

" It does not become me to precede Lady Temple-
more — I, who am only Mrs. Paul Effingham."

" Nay, dear Eve, I am not so weak as you imagine.
Do you not think I should have married him had he
not been a baronet?"

HOME AS FOUND. 241

" Templemore, my dear coz, is a man any woman
miajht love, and I believe, as firmly as I hope it sin
cerely, that he will make you happy."

" And yet there is one woman who would not love
him, Eve I"

Eve looked steadily at her cousin for a moment, was
startled, and then she felt gratified that Sir George had
been so honest, for the frankness and manliness of his
avowal was a pledge of the good faith and sincerity
of his character. She took her cousin affectionately
by the hand, and said —

" Grace, this confidence is the highest compliment
you can pay rne, and it merits a return. That Sir
George Templemore may have had a passing inclination
for one who so little deserved it, is possibly true — but
my affections were another's before I knew him."

" You never would have married Templemore, Eve;
he says himself, now, that you are quite too continental,
as he calls it, to like an Englishman."

" Then I shall take the first good occasion to unde
ceive him ; for I do like an Englishman, and he is the
identical man."

As few women are jealous on their wedding-day,
Grace took this in good part, and they descended the
stairs together, side by side, reflecting each other's
happiness, in their timid but conscious smiles. In the
great hall, they were met by the bridegrooms, and
each taking the arm of him who had now become of
so vast importance to her, they paced the room to and
fro, until summoned 'to the dejeuner & la fourchette,
which had been prepared under the especial superin
tendence of Mademoiselle Viefville, after the manner
of her country.

Wedding-days, like all formally prepared festivals,
are apt to go off a little heavily. Such, however, was
not the case with this, for every appearance of pre
meditation and preparation vanished with this meal. It
is true the family did not quit the grounds, but, with

VOL, II. 21

242 HOME AS FOUND.

this exception, ease and tranquil happiness reigned
throughout. Captain Truck was alone disposed to be
sentimental, and, more than once, as he looked about
him, he expressed his doubts whether he had pursued
the right course to attain happiness.

" I find myself in a solitary category," he said, at
the dinner-table, in the evening. " Mrs. Hawker, and
both the Messrs. Effinghams, have been married ; every
body else is married, and I believe I must take refuge
in saying that I will be married, if I can now persuade
any one to have me. Even Mr. Powis, my right-hand
man, in all that African affair, has deserted me, and
left me like a single dead pine in one of your clearings,
or a jewel-block dangling at a yard-arm, without a
sheave. Mrs. Bride — " the captain styled Eve thus,
throughout the day, to the utter neglect of the claims
of Lady Templemore — " Mrs. Bride, we will consider
my forlorn condition more philosophically, when I
shall have the honour to take you, and so many of this
blessed party, back again to Europe, where I found you.
Under your advice I think I might even yet venture."

" And I am overlooked entirely," cried Mr. Howel,
who had been invited to make one at the wedding-
feast ; " what is to become of me, Captain Truck, if
this marrying mania go any further V9

" I have long had a plan for your welfare, my dear
sir, that I will take this opportunity to divulge ; I pro
pose, ladies and gentlemen, that we enlist Mr. Howel
in our project for this autumn, and that we carry him
with us to Europe. I shall be proud to have the honour
of introducing him to his old friend, the island of Great
Britain."

" Ah ! that is a happiness, I fear, that is not in
reserve for me !" said Mr. Howel, shaking his head.
" I have thought of these things, in my time, but age
will now defeat any such hopes."

" Age, Tom Howel !" said John Effingham ; " you

are but fifty, like Ned and myself. We were all boys

ogether, forty years ago, and yet you find us, who

HOME AS FOUND. 243

have so lately returned, ready to take a fresh departure.
Pluck up heart ; there may be a steam-boat ready to
bring you back, by the time you wish to return."

" Never," said Captain Truck, positively. " Ladies
and gentlemen, it is morally impossible that the Atlan
tic should ever be navigated by steamers. That doc
trine I shall maintain to my dying day ; but what need
of a steamer, when we have packets like palaces V

" I did not know, captain, that you entertained so
hearty a respect for Great Britain — it is encouraging,
really, to find so generous a feeling toward the old
island in one of her descendants. Sir George and
Lady Templemore, permit me to drink to your lasting
felicity."

" Ay — ay — I entertain no ill-will to England, though
her tobacco laws are none of the genteelest. But my
wish to export you, Mr. Howel, is less from a desire
to show you England, than to let you perceive that
there are other countries in Europe "

" Other countries ! — Surely you do not suppose I am
so ignorant of geography, as to believe that there are
no other countries in Europe — no such places as Han
over, Brunswick, and Brunswick Lunenberg, and Den
mark ; the sister of old George the Third married the
king of that country ; and Wurtemberg, the king of
which married the Princess Royal "

" And Mecklenburg-Strelitz," added John Effingham,
gravely, " a princess of which actually married George
the Third propria persona, as well as by proxy. No
thing can be plainer than your geography, Howe! ;
but, in addition to these particular regions, our worthy
friend the captain wishes you to know also, that there
are such places as France, and Austria, and Russia,
and Italy ; though the latter can scarcely repay a man
for the trouble of visiting it."

" You have guessed my motive, Mr. John Effing-
ham, and expressed it much more discreetly than I
could possibly have done," cried the captain. "If Mr.
Howel will do me the honour to take passage with me,

244 HOME AS FOUND.

going and coming, I shall consider the pleasure of his
remarks on men and things, as one of the greatest ad
vantages I ever possessed."

" I do not know but I might be induced to venture
as far as England, but not a foot farther."

"Pas a Paris!" exclaimed Mademoiselle Viefville,
who wondered why any rational being would take the
trouble to cross the Atlantic, merely to see Ce melan-
colique Londres ; " you will go to Par/s, for my sake.
Monsieur Howel ?"

" For your sake, indeed, Mam'selle, I would do any
thing, but hardly for my own. I confess I have thought
of this, and I will think of it farther. I should like to
see the King of England and the House of Lords, I
confess, before I die."

" Ay, and the Tower, and the Boar's-Head at East-
Cheap, and the statue of the Duke of Wellington, and
London Bridge, and Richmond Hill, and Bow Street,
and Somerset House, and Oxford Road, and Bartlemy
Fair, and Hungerford Market, and Charing-Cross —
old Charing-Cross, Tom Howel !" — added John Effing-
ham, with a good-natured nod of the head.

" A wonderful nation !" cried Mr. Howel, whose eyes
sparkled as the other proceeded in his enumeration of
wonders. " I do not think, after all, that I can die in
peace, without seeing so?ne of these things — all would
be too much for me. How far is the Isle of Dogs,
now, from St. Catherine's Docks, captain?"

" Oh ! but a few cables' lengths. If you will only
stick to the ship until she is fairly docked, I will pro
mise you a sight of the Isle of Dogs before you land,
even. But then you must promise rne to carry out no
tobacco !"

" No fear of me ; I neither smoke nor chew, and it
does not surprise me that a nation as polished as the
English should have this antipathy to tobacco. And
one* might really see the Isle of Dogs before landing?
It is a wonderful country ! Mrs. Bloomfield, will you
ever be able to die tranquilly without seeing England ?"

HOME AS FOUND. 245

" I hope, sir, whenever that event shall arrive, that
it may be met tranquilly, let what may happen previ
ously. I do confess, in common with Mrs. Effingham,
a longing desire to see Italy; a wish that I believe she
entertains from her actual knowledge, and which I en
tertain from my anticipations."

"Now, this really surprises me. What can Italy
possess to repay one for the trouble of travelling so
far?"

" I trust, cousin Jack," said Eve, colouring at the
sound of her own voice, for on that day of supreme
happiness and intense emotions, she had got to be so
sensitive as to be less self-possessed than common,
" that our friend Mr. Wenham will not be forgotten,
but that he may be invited to join the party."

This representative of la jeune Jlmerique was also
present at the dinner, out of regard to his deceased
father, who was a very old friend of Mr. Effingham's,
and, being so favourably noticed by the bride, he did
not fail to reply.

" I believe an American has little to learn from any
nation but his own," observed Mr. Wenham, with the
complacency of the school to which he belonged, " al
though one might wish that all of this country should
travel, in order that the rest of the world might have
the benefit of the intercourse."

" It is a thousand pities," said John Effingham, " that
one of our universities, for instance, was not ambulant.
Old Yale was so, in its infancy ; but unlike most other
creatures, it went about with greater ease to itself
when a child, than it can move in manhood."

" Mr. John Effingham loves to be facetious," said
Mr. Wenham with dignity ; for, while he was as cre
dulous as could be wished, on the subject of American
superiority, he was not quite as blind as the votaries of
the Anglo-American school, who usually yield the
control of all their faculties and common sense to their
masters, on the points connected with their besetting
21*

246 HOME AS FOUND.

weaknesses. " Every body is agreed, I believe, that
the American imparts more than he receives, in his in
tercourse with Europeans."

The smiles of the more experienced of this young
man's listeners were well-bred and concealed, and the
conversation turned to other subjects. It was easy to
raise the laugh on such an occasion, and contrary to
the usage of the Wigwam, where the men usually left
the table with the other sex, Captain Truck, John Ef-
fingham, Mr. Bloomfield, and Mr. Howel, made what
is called a night of it. Much delicious claret was con
sumed, and the honest captain was permitted to enjoy
his cigar. About midnight he swore he had half a
mind to write a letter to Mrs. Hawker, with an offer of
his hand ; as for his heart, that she well knew she had
possessed for a long time.

The next day, about the hour when the house was
tranquil, from the circumstance that most of its inmates
were abroad on their several avocations of boating,
riding, shopping, or walking, Eve was in the library,
her father having left it, a few minutes before, to
mount his horse. She was seated at a table, writing
a letter to an aged relative of her own sex, to commu
nicate the circumstance of her marriage. The door
was half open, and Paul appeared at it unexpectedly,
coming in search of his young bride. His step had
been so light, and so intently was our heroine engaged
with her letter, that his approach was unnoticed, though
it had now been a long time that the ear of Eve had
learned to know his tread, and her heart to beat at its
welcome sound. Perhaps a beautiful woman is never
so winningly lovely as when, in her neat morning at
tire, she seems fresh and sweet as the new-born day.
Eve had paid a little more attention to her toilette than
usual even, admitting just enough of a properly se
lected jewelry, a style of ornament that so singularly
denotes the refinement of a gentlewoman, when used
understandingly, and which so infallibly betrays vul
garity under other circumstances, while her attire

HOME AS FOUND. 247

had rather more than its customary finish, though it
was impossible not to perceive, at a glance, that she
was in an undress. The Parisian skill of Annette,
on which Mr. Bragg based so many of his hopes of
future fortune, had cut and fitted the robe to her fault
lessly beautiful person, with a tact, or it might be truer
to say a contact, so perfect, that it even left more
charms to be imagined than it displayed, though the
outline of the whole figure was that of the most love
ly womanhood. But, notwithstanding the exquisite
modelling of the whole form, the almost fairy lightness
of the full, swelling, but small foot, about which nothing
seemed lean and attenuated, the exquisite hand that
appeared from among the ruffles of the dress, Paul
stood longest in nearly breathless admiration of the
countenance of his " bright and blooming bride." Per
haps there is no sentiment so touchingly endearing to
a man, as that which comes over him as he contem
plates the beauty, confiding faith, holy purity and truth
that shine in the countenance of a young, unpractised,
innocent woman, when she has so far overcome her
natural timidity as to pour out her tenderness in his be
half, and to submit to the strongest impulses of her na
ture. Such was now the fact with Eve. She was
writing of her husband, and, though her expressions
were restrained by taste and education, they partook
of her unutterable fondness and devotion. The tears
stood in her eyes, the pen trembled in her hand, and
she shaded her face as if to conceal the weakness from
herself. Paul was alarmed, he knew not wrhy, but Eve
in tears was a sight painful to him. In a moment he
was at her side, with an arm placed gently around her
waist, and he drew her fondly towards his bosom.

«Eve — dearest Eve!" he said — "what mean these
tears ?"

The serene eye, the radiant blush, and the meek
tenderness that rewarded his own burst of feeling, re
assured the young husband, and, deferring to the sen-

248 HOME AS FOUND.

sitive modesty of so young a bride, he released his
hold, retaining only a hand.

" It is happiness, Powis — nothing but excess of hap«
piness, which makes us women weaker, I fear, than
even sorrow."

Paul kissed her hands, regarded her with an in
tensity of admiration, before which the eyes of
Eve rose and fell, as if dazzled while meeting his
looks, and yet unwilling to lose them; and then he
reverted to the motive which had brought him to the
library.

" My father — your father, that is now "

" Cousin Jack !"

" Cousin Jack, if you will, has just made me a pre
sent, which is second only to the greater gift I received
from your own excellent parent, yesterday, at the
altar. See, dearest Eve, he has bestowed this lovely
image of yourself on me ; lovely, though still so far
from the truth. And here is the miniature of my poor
mother, also, to supply the place of the one carried
away by the Arabs."

Eve gazed long and wistfully at the beautiful fea
tures of this image of her husband's mother. She
traced in them that pensive thought, that winning kind
ness, that had first softened her heart towards Paul,
and her lips trembled as she pressed the insensible glass
against them.

"She must have been very handsome, Eve, and
there is a look of melancholy tenderness in the face,
that would seem almost to predict an unhappy blight
ing of the affections."

"And yet this young, ingenuous, faithful woman en
tered on the solemn engagement we have just made,
Paul, with as many reasonable hopes of a bright future
as we ourselves!"

"Not so, Eve — confidence and holy truth were
wanting at the nuptials of my parents. When there is
deception at the commencement of such a contract, it
is not difficult to predict the end."

HOME AS FOUND. 249

" I do not think, Paul, you ever deceived; that noble
heart of yours is too generous !"

" If any thing can make a man worthy of such a
love, dearest, it is the perfect and absorbing confidence
with which your sex throw themselves on the justice
and faith of ours. Did that spotless heart ever enter
tain a doubt of the worth of any living being on which
it had set its affections ?"

" Of itself, often, and they say self-love lies at the
bottom of all our actions."

" You are the last person to hold this doctrine, be
loved, for those who live most in your confidence,
declare that all traces of self are lost in your very
nature."

" Most in my confidence ! My father — my dear,
kind father, has then been betraying his besetting
weakness, by extolling the gift he has made."

" Your kind, excellent father, knows too well the to
tal want of necessity for any such thing. If the truth
must be confessed, I have been passing a quarter of
an hour with worthy Ann Sidley."

"Nanny — dear old Nanny! — and you have been
weak enough, traitor, to listen to the eulogiums of a
nurse on her child !"

"All praise of thee, my blessed Eve, is 'grateful to
my ears, and wrho can speak more understandingly of
those domestic qualities which lie at the root of do
mestic bliss, than those who have seen you in your
most intimate life, from childhood down to the moment
when you have assumed the duties of a wife ?"

" Paul, Paul, thou art beside thyself; too much learn
ing hath made thee mad !"

" I am not mad, most beloved and beautiful Eve, but
olessed to a degree that might indeed upset a stronger
reason."

" We will now talk of other things," said Eve, rais
ing his hand to her lips in respectful affection, and
looking gratefully up into his fond and eloquent eyes ;
" I hope the feeling of which you so lately spoke has

250 HOME AS FOUND.

subsided, and that you no longer feel yourself a strangef
in the dwelling of your own family."

" Now that I can claim a right through you, I con
fess that my conscience is getting to be easier on this
point. Have you been yet told of the arrangement
that the older heads meditate in reference to our fu
ture means ?"

" I would not listen to my dear father when he
wished to introduce the subject, for I found that it was
a project that made distinctions between Paul Effing-
ham and Eve Effingham, two that I wish, henceforth,
to consider as one in all things."

" In this, darling, you may do yourself injustice as
well as me. But perhaps you may not wish me to
speak on the subject, neither."

« What would my lord ?"

" Then listen, and the tale is soon told. We are
each other's natural heirs. Of the name and blood of
Effingham, neither has a relative nearer than the other,
for, though but cousins in the third degree, our family
is so small as to render the husband, in this case, the
natural heir of the wife, and the wife the natural heir
of the husband. Now your father proposes that his
estates be valued, and that my father settle on you a
sum of equal amount, which his wealth will fully ena
ble him to do, and that I become the possessor in re
version, of the lands that would otherwise have been
yours."

" You possess me, my heart, my affections, my duty ;
of what account is money after this !"

" I perceive that you are so much and so truly \vo-
man, Eve, that we must arrange all this without con
sulting you at all."

" Can I be in safer hands ? A father that has always
been LOO indulgent of my unreasonable wishes — a se
cond parent that has only contributed too much to
spoil me in the same thoughtless manner — and a "

" Husband," added Paul, perceiving that Eve hesi
tated at pronouncing to his face a name so nove

HOME AS FOUND. ^51

though so endearing, " who will strive to do more than
either in the same way."

" Husband," she added, looking up into his face with
a smile innocent as that of an infant, while the crimson
tinge covered her forehead, " if the formidable word
must be uttered, who is doing all he can to increase a
self-esteem that is already so much greater than it
ought to be."

A light tap at the door caused Eve to start and look
embarrassed, like one detected in a fault, and Paul to
release the hand that he had continued to hold during
the brief dialogue.

" Sir — ma'am" — said the timid, meek voice of Ann
Sidley, as she held the door ajar, without presuming
to look into the room; "Miss Eve — Mr. Powis."

" Enter, my good Nanny," said Eve, recovering her
self-composure in a moment, the presence of her nurse
always appearing to her as no more than a duplication
of herself. " What is your wish ?"

" I hope I am not unreasonable, but I knew that
Mr. Effingham was alone with you, here, and I wished
— that is, ma'am, — Miss Eve — Sir "

" Speak your wishes, my good old nurse — am I not
your own child, and is not this your own child's" —
again Eve hesitated, blushed, and smiled, ere she pro
nounced the formidable word — " husband."

" Yes, ma'am ; and God be praised that it is so. I
dreamt, it is now four years, Miss Eve ; we were then
travelling among the Denmarkers, and I dreamt that
you were married to a great prince "

" But your dream has not come true, my good Nan
ny, and you see by this fact that it is not always safe
to trust in dreams."

" Ma'am, I do not esteem princes by the kingdoms
and crowns, but by their qualities — and if Mr. Powis
be not a prince, who is ?"

" That, indeed, changes the matter," said the grati
fied young wife ; " and I believe, after all, dear Nan-

252 HOME AS FOUND.

ny, that I must become a convert to your theory of
dreams."

" While I must always deny it, good Mrs. Sidley. if
this is a specimen of its truth," said Paul, laughing.
" But, perhaps this prince proved unworthy of Miss
Eve, after all?"

" Not he, sir ; he made her a most kind and affec
tionate husband ; not humouring all her idle wishes, if
Miss Eve could have had such wishes, but cherishing
her, and counselling her, and protecting her, showing
as much tenderness for her as her o\vn father, and as
much love for her as I had myself."

" In which case, my worthy nurse, he proved an in
valuable husband," said Eve, with glistening eyes —
'• and I trust, too, that he was considerate and friendly
to you ?»

" He took me by the hand, the morning after the
marriage, and said, Faithful Ann Sidley, you have
nursed and attended my beloved when a child, and as
a young lady ; and I now entreat you will continue to
wait on and serve her as a wife to your dying day.
He did, indeed, ma'am ; and I think I can now hear
the very words he spoke so kindly. The dream, so
far, has come good."

" My faithful Ann," said Paul, smiling, and taking
the hand of the nurse, " you have been all that is good
and true to my best beloved, as a child, and as a young
lady ; and now I earnestly entreat you to continue to
wait on her, and to serve her as my wife, to your dy
ing day."

Nanny clapped her hands with a scream of delight,
and bursting into tears, she exclaimed, as she hurried
from the room,

'• It has all come true — it has all come true !"

A pause of several minutes succeeded this burst of
superstitious but natural feeling.

" All who live near you appear to think you the
common centre of their affections," Paul resumed,
when his swelling heart permitted him to speak.

HOME AS FOUND. 253

" We have hitherto been a family of love — God
grant it may always continue so."

Another delicious silence, which lasted still longer
than the other, followed. Eve then looked up into her
husband's face with a gentle curiosity, and observed —

" You have told me a great deal, Powis — explained
all but one little thing, that, at the time, caused me
great pain. Why did Ducie, when you were about to
quit the Montauk together, so unceremoniously stop
you, as you were about to get into the boat first ; is
the etiquette of a man-of-war so rigid as to justify so
much rudeness, I had almost called it — 1"

" The etiquette of a vessel of war is rigid certainly,
and wisely so. But what you fancied rudeness, was
in truth a compliment. Among us sailors, it is the in
ferior who goes first into a boat, and who quits it last."

" So much, then, for forming a judgment, ignorantly !
I believe it is always safer to have no opinion, than to
form one without a perfect knowledge of all the ac*
companying circumstances."

" Let us adhere to this safe rule through life, dearest,
and we may find its benefits. An absolute confidence,
caution in drawing conclusions, and a just reliance on
each other, may keep us as happy to the end of our
married life, as we are at this blessed moment, when it
is commencing under auspices so favourable as to
seem almost providential."

THE END

VOL. II. 22

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